Prof. van de Walle’s discussion on his studies in Africa had a lot of significance to me, for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I’m a government major, so I find academic areas such as this to be very interesting.  Since I was sitting in the front, I couldn’t see if there were any other government majors in the room when he asked, but I get the impression that there weren’t many.  And while I’m more of an international relations kind of guy, the comparative sub-field that Prof. van de Walle’s works in is very related.  Additionally, I found the talk interesting because I’ve been to Africa before–specifically Nairobi on a school service trip during high school.

The discussion served as a good reminder to ward off a unspoken misunderstanding that many people have when thinking about Africa.  People tend to just consider it as a single sovereign unit, as if Africa is both a country and a continent.  Of course, there is a much greater degree of complexity that underlies all conversations regarding it.  Hearing about the differences between the various regions and nations, ranging form political to social and economic, helps remind us of this.