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    29 Instagram Photos That Will Challenge Your Stereotypes About Africa

    "The common media image of the African continent is one of extremes. But how can we identify the extremes without first establishing the norms?"

    "Everyday Africa" is an Instagram account that aims to break the continent's extreme poverty-stricken stereotypes by capturing snapshots of the mundane, the unseen, the "normal life."

    1. "Boys at play. Popenguine, Senegal."

    2. "Sleeping passengers in an overcrowded taxi outside of Hohoe, Ghana."

    3. "Saxophones hang from a tree as members of the Rwandan Defense Force Band wait for practice to begin in Kigali, Rwanda."

    4. "Fred Swaniker and Amanda Johnson make time for a per-ceremony photo shoot in Zanzibar, the most beautiful paradise in the world."

    5. "Squeezing fermented cassava to make Garri—a staple food in southwest and southeast Nigeria—in Abeaokuta, Nigeria, on June 5, 2013."

    6. "Chinese businessmen are served wine during dinner at a restaurant in Kano, Northern Nigeria, on April 10, 2013."

    7. "A man walks past the Facebook Cafe in downtown Tunis, Tunisia."

    8. "Nairobi, Kenya | Beryl Opar, 29, has been searching for a job for a year and a half. She takes advantage of her free time to work on her tennis game."

    9. "The cabbie and his radio, in the Badia neighborhood of Lagos, Nigeria, August 25, 2013."

    10. "Elizabeth Nakaya, 20, and her friend Sophia, relax in the housing block she lives in with her mother and two younger sisters in a suburb of Nairobi."

    11. "School girls share a photo of yours truly in Maiduguri, Nigeria on May 21, 2013."

    12. "A boy lies next to the steps of Le Monument de la Renaissance Africaine in Dakar, Senegal on July 2, 2013."

    13. "Lagos, July 11, 2013."

    14. "Two men bury themselves in the sand on the beach in Grand-Bassam."

    15. "A girl eats cotton candy at the Kinder Paradise Orphanage in Prampram."

    16. "A taxi driver sleeps in front of the Accra, Ghana airport."

    17. "A young, inter racial couple watch on as Dele, a Ghanaian street side painter trims and packages a painting he did of them."

    18. "'Welcome to the world of strawberries.' Stellenbosch region, Western Cape."

    19. "Tourists waiting to board ferry to Robben Island."

    20. "Virage Beach, Dakar, Senegal."

    21. "A woman climbs out of a waterfall pool at the bottom on Wli Falls in the Volta Region of Ghana."

    22. "The Real Action Ladies practice on September 2, 2012 in the Orange Farm Township."

    23. "Children react to the presence of foreign journalists in Leleble, Ivory Coast."

    24. "Dancers sing dance as their troupe marches through the streets of Cape Town as part of the 2013 Cape Town Minstrel Carnival."

    25. "Cricket enjoys her second picnic in the Nairobi Arboretum. She was nicknamed Cricket by her mother."

    26. "The writing on the wall says 'The people have risen' in Wolof language. It was a slogan for an opposition presidential candidate. Dakar, Senegal."

    27. "A butterfly on a screened in balcony in Freetown, Sierra Leone."

    28. "Open-air foosball game, Dakar, Senegal, Sept. 28."

    29. "A young boy hides beneath his grandmother's cloak as the afternoon rains begin."