5 Things Americans Get Completely Wrong About Living in Africa

When I tell people I live in Africa, the responses fall into two categories: those who assume I live in a village with no electricity, and those who assume I live somewhere perpetually dangerous. Both groups are responding to an image of Africa that is about 30 years out of date, geographically scrambled, and built almost entirely from media coverage that disproportionately represents suffering, conflict, and wildlife.

The actual Africa where I live has fiber internet, extraordinary food, a thriving middle class, English-speaking professionals, and some of the warmest communities I have ever been part of. These five myths are the ones I have to correct most often.

Myth 1: Africa Is a Country

Africa is a continent of 54 countries, 1.4 billion people, and more linguistic and cultural diversity than Europe and Asia combined. Senegal and Kenya are as different from each other as Portugal and Poland. Cape Town and Nairobi are as different from each other as Miami and Chicago. The phrase 'moving to Africa' describes a continent, not a destination. It is the starting point of a research process, not the end of one.

What this means practically: when people say they cannot imagine living in Africa, they are usually imagining a composite that does not exist. When they learn that Dakar has a food scene that rivals European cities, that Cape Town is one of the most livable cities in the world by measurable metrics, that Nairobi has a functioning coffee culture and a tech sector, the mental image shifts, because it should.

Myth 2: It Is Not Safe

Safety in Africa is entirely location-dependent, exactly as it is in the United States or anywhere else. Dakar, Senegal is rated Level 1 by the U.S. State Department, the same designation as France. Cape Town has real safety complexity in certain areas and is genuinely safe in others. Nairobi requires awareness and city-specific knowledge. Accra and Kampala are among the most peaceful and welcoming cities on the continent.

The blanket 'Africa is dangerous' assertion is the equivalent of saying 'the United States is dangerous' because of crime rates in certain American cities. It obscures more than it reveals. The question is not whether Africa is safe. The question is which city, which neighborhood, and what preparation.

Myth 3: There Is No Infrastructure

Dakar's fiber internet in the main expat neighborhoods is faster than what many Americans have at home. Cape Town has a functioning metro system, world-class private hospitals, international airports, and a real estate market that operates like any developed country's. Nairobi hosts the African headquarters of more multinational companies than most people realize and has a tech sector that the press has nicknamed 'Silicon Savannah.'

The infrastructure is not uniform. Some parts of some cities have load-shedding, unreliable water, or road quality that takes adjustment. But the assumption that 'moving to Africa' means moving to inadequate infrastructure is wrong. It means moving to a continent where infrastructure quality varies — which is also true of the United States.

Myth 4: The Food Is Not Good

The thiéboudienne in Dakar is one of the best dishes I have ever eaten, and I have eaten it hundreds of times. The Cape Malay curry in Cape Town's Bo-Kaap neighborhood is extraordinary. The rolex at a Kampala roadside stall, the injera with misir wat in Addis Ababa, the jollof rice argument between Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria that generates more food-related passion than any debate I have encountered anywhere else. African food is regional, specific, historically deep, and genuinely excellent. The only reason it is underrepresented in American food culture is that the food culture of Africa has been underrepresented generally.

Myth 5: Americans Will Not Be Welcome

This is the fear that surprises me most because the actual experience of arriving in Dakar or Accra or Nairobi as an American is almost universally described as warm. The culture of teranga in Senegal, the hospitality culture in Ghana and Uganda, the social openness of Cape Town's diverse international community — what Americans consistently find when they actually go is a warmth of welcome that exceeds what they were prepared for.

The welcome is not uncomplicated. It involves the full history of America's relationship with Africa, and it deserves to be engaged with honestly rather than naively. But the day-to-day human experience of being an American in West, East, or Southern Africa is, in the accounts we have from clients and from our own experience, warmly received.

The Bottom Line

The mental model most Americans carry of Africa is not based on current reality. It is based on a combination of legacy media coverage, outdated guidebooks, and a cultural narrative that has not kept pace with what the continent has actually become. The specific cities and communities where BTM works, Dakar, Cape Town, Nairobi, Accra, Kampala, are places where people are building real, full, connected lives at a cost that American income makes genuinely accessible.

The myths are worth correcting because they are keeping people from a decision that might be the best they ever make.