It all began on a quiet night during my first day in secondary boarding school abroad. A classmate turned to me and asked, “Do you live in a mud house?” I was stunned. Having grown up in Nigeria—a land of vibrant culture, resilient people, and boundless potential—I had never imagined that the world viewed Africa as a place of poverty and backwardness.

That moment sparked an awareness I had never confronted before. Not only did the world carry a distorted image of Africa, but even I had unknowingly absorbed some of these misconceptions. While I held Nigeria in high regard, I realized that, to the rest of the world, Nigeria was not exempt from the stereotypes assigned to Africa as a whole.

For the rest of my time in school, I made it my mission to challenge this narrative. I brought back pictures of Nigeria after every trip home, shared stories of our innovation and strength, and showed my classmates the Nigeria I knew—one of beauty, intelligence, and pride. But their reactions were disheartening. Even as they acknowledged my experiences, they dismissed them as exceptions: “You’re just from a rich family,” they’d say, convinced that the rest of Nigeria—and Africa—remained the poverty-stricken continent they had seen on UNICEF ads.