"African problems need African solutions" - but it was the Africans who caused the famine in the first place.
Forty years after its launch, Bob Geldof’s iconic charity anthem Do They Know It’s Christmas? faces some fierce backlash. Critics, including Ghanaian-British rapper Fuse ODG and singer Ed Sheeran, accuse it of perpetuating “colonial stereotypes” about Africa and claims that it's a sign of 'White Supremacy'.
Fuse ODG, who wasn't even born when the charity single was released, turned down participating in one of the many remakes ( Band Aid’s 2014 ) thinking that because he did that makes him some type of expert on it. Speaking out this week, the rapper said the song was dehumanising. Adding "African problems need African solutions,"
He later suggested there should be a shift from "guilt-driven charity to genuine partnership." His new track, We Know It’s Christmas, is his incredibly ignorant answer to the 'controversy' of which he clearly knows nothing about.
Ed Sheeran was another who decided to comment on something he also knows nothing about. The ginger ditty merchant sang on the 2014 version, when it suited him to do so, but since has announced he wouldn’t have consented to the latest 2024 remix, not that they asked him. "My understanding of the narrative has changed," he wrote, adding his hope for “forward-looking” solutions.
The Ethiopian Government Caused the Famine.
The Ethiopian famine of 1984 was a catastrophic crisis affecting over 8 million people who were at risk of starvation eventually claiming over 1 million lives. In 1983 there had been a drought in the region but that wasn't the reason for the famine, merely the story told by NGOs and the BBC.
The famine had really come about because of the Marxist government that was in power at the time. The drought had not been any more extreme than any other year, but the Communist ideologies of the government meant mismanagement of it on a grand scale, there was also the inevitable tribal conflict going on in the region at the time something that is all but forgotten in reports now.
The Marxist Derg regime, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, could have prevented the famine, there was enough food and water to go around but he used those supplies to perpetuate the civil war. The government actively starved their tribal enemies to death by destroying agriculture and blocking aid to rebel-held areas.
Westerners, unaware of the real cause of the famine, (Ethiopia's own government), were shocked by what the BBC reported. The famous "biblical scene" news report mobilised a response and Band Aid and Live Aid followed.
Created by Bob Geldof, they raised over $200 million, while billions more were sent by governments and NGOs from across the world. At least 20% of that money was stolen be Ethiopian government, with several members becoming millionaires in the months after the famine. When grain was sent, the convoys were then hijacked by 'rebels' reportedly who were secretly working for the Government. The scale of corruption was enormous, with the Ethiopian government later accused of letting their own people die when they could have been saved.
Geldof was naive to all this, as were the rest of the country who went out and bought the single in their thousands. Now, it appears that we shouldn't have bothered anyway.
But Geldof won’t let the criticism slide. “This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands, if not millions, alive,” he retorted. The famine in Ethiopia, which inspired the original, was real, he emphasised. Dismissing accusations of perpetuating colonial tropes, he stated bluntly: “These are empirical facts.”
Geldof’s fiery defence highlights the song's enduring impact. Funds raised have supported countless relief efforts, from the Ethiopian famine to the Ebola crisis. Today, Band Aid is reportedly helping victims of Sudan’s ongoing violence. Yet, the critique remains: does the song’s narrative harm Africa’s image while helping its people?
Critics like Fuse ODG really don't know what they're talking about. At the time African nations were claiming that the famine itself had been caused by the west and that it was our duty to come to the rescue of those suffering. Africa has spent the last eighty years demanding that we give them money, when we do it is often squandered, stolen or misused just like it was in 1984. It is easy for Fuse ODG to label such things as 'white supremacy', or perpetuating African stereotypes when he knows nothing about it.
Despite all this, yet another version is being recorded, even though it's not needed, not wanted, and won't be as good as the first.
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