Quora精選：人們對非洲有哪些誤解？
What is something most people don't know about Africa?
非洲有什麼事是大多數人不知道的？
獲得634.7k好評的回答@Innocent Masengo：
That most Africans are poor, not because they really are poor, but because someone decides to describe them as such.
大部分非洲人很窮，不是因爲他們真窮，而是因爲有人故意把他們說得很窮。
My grandfather is ‘poor’. He certainly lives on “less than a dollar a day”. He is now 95 years old. In his nine and a half decades on earth, he has never lacked, and he has never begged. He only attended one year at a mission school in the 1930s and learnt how to read and write. This is how he pulls it off:
我外祖父就“窮”，他的生活來源當然是“每天不到一美元”。他現在95歲，過去的95年裏他從未缺過什麼，也沒要過飯。他只在20世紀30年代上過一年教會學校學習讀和寫。下面就是他的生活：
When he wants food, he goes to the banana plantation, looks at tens of bunches of matooke (banana) and decides which to harvest for the day’s dinner. Adjacent to the plantation is a sweet potato garden, cassava garden, yams and finger millet. To the south of the banana plantation are beans, cow peas or peanuts gardens. Down the valley is grazing land with tens of cross-breed cattle. They provide him with milk daily, 365 days a year.
他想吃東西時，就去香蕉種植園，看着數十株大香蕉，想想摘哪些做晚飯，挨着這個種植園是紅薯園、木薯園、山藥和龍爪稷。香蕉園的南面是豆子、豇豆或花生園。沿着山谷繼續走就是牧場，有幾十頭雜交牛，每天都產奶，一年365天不間斷。
He also has about 20 goats. In Uganda, goat milk was generally not considered palatable, possibly due to the abundance of cow milk, so we never milked goats. He would sell a couple of them to supplement income from other produce to send his children to school. He also reared a couple of chickens, more as a hobby.
他還有約20只山羊。在烏干達普遍認爲羊奶不好喝，可能是因爲牛奶太多，所以從不擠羊奶。他會賣掉幾隻羊貼補其他農產品的收入來送孩子們上學。他也會養幾隻小雞，更像是個愛好。
The farm produces more than he can consume. He sells the surplus to afford such essential services as kerosene (recently upgraded to solar), soap, sugar.
農場上產出的東西他自己用不完，就把剩下的東西賣掉買些生活用品，比如煤油（現在都升級爲太陽能了）、肥皂和糖。
Scattered across the farm are sugarcane (for eating, not for making sugar) and fruit trees (guava, mango, pawpaw, avocado, orange, passion fruit, pineapple). He drinks fresh juice from mangoes and passion fruit. As is evident, everything here is on a subsistence basis, but very organic. He has done this for the past 75 years.
農場上四處散落着甘蔗（是吃的，不是製糖的）和果樹（番石榴、芒果、木瓜、牛油果、桔子、百香果和菠蘿）。他喝新鮮芒果汁和百香果汁。顯然這裏的一切能滿足日常所需，而且都是有機的。他過去的75年都是這樣過的。
He had eleven children, my mother being his first born. He sent all of them to school, saw eight of them through college. He sold at least two cows, some goats and some produce each school term to send his children to school.
他有11個孩子，我媽媽是老大，他送所有孩子上學，其中八個上了大學。每學期送孩子上學他要賣掉至少兩頭牛，一些山羊和農產品。
I went to live at grandfather’s place when I was 5 years old. I left when I was 14 (my family lived in an urban area). I learnt how to farm, milk cows, tether goats, harvest fruits and harvesting honey.
我5歲時住在外祖父家，14歲離開（我家住在市區），我學會了如何務農、擠牛奶、栓山羊，收穫水果和蜂蜜。
Why the long story?
爲什麼要說這麼多？
My grandfather, just like millions of other Africans that live like him, is considered poor. He rarely holds money, and he rarely needs it. He produces most of what he needs. But using the standard World Bank/IMF description of ‘poor’, my grandfather is poor. I live in the city and earn about USD 12,000 a year after tax, which in Uganda is a decent salary. But I can hardly match my grandfather in terms of providing for my family with fresh milk, fresh food and fresh fruits.
我外祖父正如數百萬像他一樣生活着的非洲人一樣被認爲很窮，他手裏沒什麼錢，也不需要錢。他自給自足，但用世界銀行或國際貨幣基金組織對“窮”的標準描述來衡量的話，他很窮。我生活在城市，稅後年薪約12,000美元，這在烏干達是非常體面的工資水平了，但我外祖父能爲家人提供新鮮的牛奶、新鮮的食物和水果，在這一點上我跟他比不了。
（翻譯：菲菲）
