Why do we know so little about Africa ?

I was looking through a history book the other day, and it struck me that we (ie city dwelling folk) know surprisingly little about Africa. And I think it's safe to assume that most people in the world (outside of Africa, that is) are in the same state of ignorance about a continent, which is almost as big in area as Europe and North America combined.

I mean, we know things about North American history - admittedly not too much, sitting here in India, but at least the main bits. We know about the Anglo Frech wars, about the Native Americans who fought with the colonists, about George Washington and all that. Even in recent times, we are quite abreast of what goes on with Uncle Sam, and to a lesser extent in Canada and Mexico.

We also know the important bits about South America, about the Incas, from the Spanish invasion right down to Pinochet's excessses.

European history too, is not entirely lost on us. All of us have read at some point or the other about the British colonialism, The Renaissance, The Industrial Revolution, The French revolution, The World Wars, and many such events.

Hell, we even know more about Australia than we do about Africa. Not that there's a whole lot of Australian history anyways.

Asian history, being closer to home, is of course familair to us.

When it comes to Africa though, all we know of definitively is Nelson Mandela, and the fact that people starve in Somalia. South Africa and AIDS. We know next to nothing about countries outside of South Africa, Egypt and to some extent Zimbabwe. Only very recently did I come to know that Ethiopia has a great and colorful history, and that it has retained its independence throughout the troubled history of Africa. I don't know how many of us are aware that there was a Second Congo War fought between 1998 and 2002, and that the First Congo War took place between 1996 and 1997, or that the casualties in both these wars amounted to more than 4 million people. That's about four times as many people as there are in Goa.

I was not even aware, till I saw the film Hotel Rwanda, that in a conflict in Rwanda and Burundi (two pint sized coutried in Central Africa), about a million people died in tribal wars, fully supported by the government. Maybe this ignorance is something to do with my habit of flicking the remote button each time the main headlines are done with. And African news rarely make the top three news items.

Even a cursory glance at African history is fascinating. I don't think any other continent's map has changed so often in the last 100 years. And I don't know of any other Continent being treated as if it were pieces of cake by colonists. Now Africa is a Continent with 54 countries, about a 1000 languages, with about 900 million people living there.

I sometimes think why we know so little of Africa, and I remember that I read someplace : 'History is written by the winning side'. Thinking back, I guess all the history we ever know is what powers like the British and now the Americans want us to know.

At least now, with the internet, we have the choice to find out the truth about pretty much anything we want to.

No points for guessing that my staple reading now is African history.
Wikipedia and answers.com are great places for a first look into this, and indeed any other, topic.