why do many people call anyone from Africa Africans instead of their nationality or country?

Question

i have a friend who meat a guy from africa . for two years they are friends and yet he calls him african instead of his nationality or country. i ask him what country is he really from but he had no idea but say he is an african. i ask him that africa is not a state and there are many countries in africa. is like calling someone fro mexico an american when there are many countries in america

i don't call anyone from asia asian or any one form europe eruopeans becasue there are many countries in asia and eroupe and in north americans

Answer 1

It is mainly ignorance and the not-uncommon bigotry. In USA we learn so little geography that we would not know for the most part where most countries are, or their names. Learning the names of a couple of continents is certainly easier than learning countries, some of which we never heard of. When people in USA learn about a country is typically because we have managed to get into a war somewhere in a distant corner of the world. How did we learn about Korea, Vietnam, and more recently about Iraq? Do we really know where those countries are? There are geography teachers that have no problem admitting we often do not know what is the capital of our own country. I do not condemn ignorance because we are all ignorant in one thing or another, but I do stand against the arrogance that we sometimes so ignorantly display.

Answer 2

I think it's an easy way to say that this black man is from
Africa rather than the exact nation he's from, like Ghana or Uganda. Just like most people would classify a white man as
a European rather than saying he's a German or French.
This also happens to those people from Asia whom they are
called Asians instead of Indians or Chinese by the Americans
or Europeans.

Answer 3

I'd love to know that too - some people treat africa as if it is a country - they think of africa as being the 'United States of Africa'. It's hard for them to realise that Africa is actually full of countries, just like Europe really.

Answer 4

I have a friend whose from Norway and I constantly refer to him as European unless someone asks specifically.

My college roommate was from Japan but I told everyone he was Asian unless they asked specifically. Another roommate was Mexican, I referred to her as LATIN.

Its what we do. I'm from the Bahamas and we're considered Caribbean (even though we are not in the caribbean sea) along with Jamaicans and Haitians.

I consider CUBANs West Indian because they are just south of the Bahamas.

What's the big deal?

Answer 5

that also happens with asians,
i think its because we have a tendency to be lazy and want to lump people together in large groups or maybe its just because he just thinks of the african as a person and doesnt care what specific country hes from.

Answer 6

Good question...but we call our self "Americans" and we are really "United States of Americans". So it doesn't look like we are right either.

Oh well we should just call ourselves humans or earthlings.

Answer 7

For the same reason you use European or Asian.

Answer 8

how about Russian or an European ;)

Good question

Answer 9

What if they are from the country of Niger?