History /
What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]
if someone actually went to school (which is not so obvious in Africa) they get some basic facts about world history and to some extent about European history.
This is correct. I'd go further and suggest that people there don't always get even that, especially in the former French colonies. Education there is sadly very basic at best. 80 kids to a room with one lightbulb and no paper or pens. Things tend to be better in the Commonwealth however world history isn't a priority in most schools in Africa. I've trained School Inspectors for state schools and taught myself in private ones. The situation is sad.
I can imagine those were not your ordinary African Joe
Probably the elite. I however have send quite a lot of time with ordinary people there, ones who've not been abroad, not had the benefit of much education, don't speak any foreign languages and who have more pressing things on their mind than matters a continent away. When they ask me where I live, most had never hard of Poland. The more educated or affluent often thought it was part of Germany or r*SSia.
There are, for example, villagers in countries like Pakistan, who don't know that the Earth is round (no, I'm not kidding).
There are people in the more remote parts of Africa who've heard the word America and assume it's a village somewhere past Morocco.
I'd not underestimate the insights into central and Eastern European history among educated people in Western Europe or overestimate Poles' knowledge of Western history. Not everyone in a large country is the same. I've met educated people here who think that Scotland is Roman Catholic and that Belgium is entirely French-speaking..
