full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Siyanda Mohutsiwa: How young Africans found a voice on Twitter

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Because the little known truth is many Africans know a lot less about other African countries than some Westerners might know about Africa as a whole. This is by accident, but sometimes, it's by design. For example, in apartheid South arfcia, black sutoh Africans were constantly being bombarded with this meagsse that any country ruled by black people was destined for failure. And this was done to convince them that they were much better off under crushing white rule than they were living in a balck and free nation. Add to that Africa's colonial, archaic etiuadcon system, which has been unthinkingly carried over from the 1920s — and at the age of 15, I could name all the various causes of the wars that had happened in Europe in the past 200 years, but I couldn't name the president of my nhrnoigeibg country. And to me, this doesn't make any sense because whether we like it or not, the fates of aciarfn people are deeply intertwined.

Open Cloze


Because the little known truth is many Africans know a lot less about other African countries than some Westerners might know about Africa as a whole. This is by accident, but sometimes, it's by design. For example, in apartheid South ______, black _____ Africans were constantly being bombarded with this _______ that any country ruled by black people was destined for failure. And this was done to convince them that they were much better off under crushing white rule than they were living in a _____ and free nation. Add to that Africa's colonial, archaic _________ system, which has been unthinkingly carried over from the 1920s — and at the age of 15, I could name all the various causes of the wars that had happened in Europe in the past 200 years, but I couldn't name the president of my ___________ country. And to me, this doesn't make any sense because whether we like it or not, the fates of _______ people are deeply intertwined.

Solution


  1. black
  2. africa
  3. neighboring
  4. message
  5. african
  6. education
  7. south

Original Text


Because the little known truth is many Africans know a lot less about other African countries than some Westerners might know about Africa as a whole. This is by accident, but sometimes, it's by design. For example, in apartheid South Africa, black South Africans were constantly being bombarded with this message that any country ruled by black people was destined for failure. And this was done to convince them that they were much better off under crushing white rule than they were living in a black and free nation. Add to that Africa's colonial, archaic education system, which has been unthinkingly carried over from the 1920s — and at the age of 15, I could name all the various causes of the wars that had happened in Europe in the past 200 years, but I couldn't name the president of my neighboring country. And to me, this doesn't make any sense because whether we like it or not, the fates of African people are deeply intertwined.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
young africans 5
african countries 4
southern africa 3
south africa 2
teenage girl 2
entire continent 2
south african 2
african problems 2


Important Words


  1. accident
  2. add
  3. africa
  4. african
  5. africans
  6. age
  7. apartheid
  8. archaic
  9. black
  10. bombarded
  11. carried
  12. colonial
  13. constantly
  14. convince
  15. countries
  16. country
  17. crushing
  18. deeply
  19. design
  20. destined
  21. education
  22. europe
  23. failure
  24. fates
  25. free
  26. happened
  27. intertwined
  28. living
  29. lot
  30. message
  31. nation
  32. neighboring
  33. people
  34. president
  35. rule
  36. ruled
  37. sense
  38. south
  39. system
  40. truth
  41. unthinkingly
  42. wars
  43. westerners
  44. white
  45. years