There’s a general divergence between American blacks and African or Caribbean immigrants, who tend to want to work and improve themselves. (Generalizations, of course.)
However, there are exceptions. Somalis come in two basic varieties, “Somali Bantu” and “ethnic Somali.” The Bantu are the working people of Somalia, often slaves or near as makes no difference. In the US, although it is difficult for them to adjust from their extremely primitive origins, they tend to be hardworking, pursue education diligently (if not brilliantly), and so on.
Ethnic Somali, however, have a cultural prejudice against work. Work is for slaves. “Real Somalis” fight and steal, or lie around and chew qat. They do not work, they do not learn, they do not produce. In some ways, they are similar to Haitians, who, for different cultural reasons, do not have a culture of work, education, and productivity, and so tend to become dependents, criminals, and generally harmful residents of the U.S.
One might say, allowing for individual outliers of course, that Somalis are the “African-Americans” of Africa, and Haitians are the “African-Americans” of the Caribbean, making the journalist’s confusion over physical vs. cultural geography even more ironic.
That “work is for slaves” or “work is beneath me” ethic is prevalent among the Arabs as well.
is there any culture of men actually working in Africa?....it seems the women do the majority of work and the men sit around making up lies....