How Live8 ignored Africa
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he Live8 concerts today, put on for huge audiences at ten venues and broadcast to potentially billions of viewers around the world, were supposed to be all about Africa. The aim of Live8 is laudable: to put pressure on world leaders, meeting next week at Gleneagles in Scotland, for debt cancellation, more aid and free trade for Africa.
Only one of the ten concerts was in Africa. It was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and received hardly any attention in the coverage here – just the requisite clip of Nelson Mandela.
There were virtually no black artists at the Hyde Park concert. Only the African Children's Choir – not exactly the headline act – appeared to have any direct connection with the continent. The most prominent of the black artists was an American rapper who swore a lot.
When the conspicuous dominance of white faces was pointed out, a second, smaller event was hurriedly put together at the Eden Project in Cornwall in association with WOMAD. As one commentator pointed out, all of the African artists were being kept in a greenhouse away from the main event. The turnout there appeared to reflect the fact that most of them were unknown in this country.
None of that is surprising: if the Hyde Park gig had been performed solely by African musicians nobody had heard of it would not have attracted the attention it has. But it is emblematic of Live8 as a whole.
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he banner above the London stage said that "the world is watching", and we were regularly reminded of the fact that it was being broadcast in over a hundred countries. Yet how many people were watching in Africa? In Uganda only one in 10 people have a television, and in common with most African countries there is not the infrastructure to broadcast such an event widely. Jon Snow, reporting for Channel 4 today, found virtually no one there who had heard of Live8, or even the G8.Everything about Live8 comes from the western perspective. They want debt to be cancelled – debt to the west. They want more and better aid – from the west. They want free trade – with the west. It is a very self-centred, but not selfish, way of trying to help a continent.
All of those things are necessary to improve the lives of Africans, but they are not enough. Geldof and the other rock stars performing today see the problem in simple terms: if debt, aid and trade are sorted out then Africa will be a better place. It is necessary for them to do so – complexities do not attract headlines, and they would not have provoked such a public reaction. The public had to believe that they could do something, through their leaders.
And yet it is the complexities that form the greatest barrier – greater even than the protectionist trade policies of some G8 members. Complexities like the corruption and institutional problems rife in many of the poorest African countries. There would be little point cancelling debt and increasing aid if the money was siphoned off to repaint presidential palaces and buy private jets, as some of it is now.
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n truth, the G8 leaders cannot achieve everything this week. No matter what they do, all Africans will not wake up the morning after to suddenly find instant access to clean drinking water, plenty of food and retroviral drugs.But that is not to say they cannot achieve anything. Any reduction in debt, increase in aid or dropping of trade barriers would be a step in the right direction. What is needed alongside that is reform inside African countries. Only Africans can achieve that, but the world's richest countries can put more pressure on African leaders and provide encouragement as well as their money.
The G8, as Live8 should have done, has to work with Africa as well as for it.
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