"How do you have internet when you live in huts?" "Do you have clean water?" African TikTokers deal with these questions and stereotypes every day in the comments on their videos. In order to fight back against these cliches, many of them have decided to respond with humour. Our Observer, Charity Ekezie, is a Nigerian woman with more than 400,000 followers on the app. She told the FRANCE 24 Observers team how she was breaking down misconceptions about Africa in her videos.
Some people online have an almost prehistoric view of Africa as a place with no running water, internet access, refrigerators or beds. These people have no reservations about sending these questions to the TikTokers in Africa, whose videos are shared all over the world, thanks to the app's algorithm. Ekezie said that many of the comments, coming often from Americans or Europeans, are jokes or racist insults, but others are serious.
