Published 19th November 2014: http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/shakara-speaks-it-bandaid30-tolerate-white-middle-class-stupidity/
So, as we are all aware by now Bob Geldof and his Band of Merry men are at it again with the recently released BandAid30 single “Do They Know Its Christmas” – Ebola Remix. While the justified outrage will no doubt continue, I really had to sit down and consider this thing from different angles in order to know how to respond to it.
It could well be that for the most part we are dealing with the kind of upper middle class white privilege that breeds a special kind of stupidity. A special kind of stupidity that doesn’t require you to know that Ethiopia for example is one of the oldest Christian nations on the planet and therefore, famine or no famine, its people would have been very well aware that it was Christmas 30 years ago – even if they celebrate it in January instead of December. It could well be that that same privilege means that Bob and his Band are not aware of the fact that thousands of Afrikans in the Diaspora travel back to places like Ghana every year specifically for the Christmas period.
It could well be that. But I personally find it hard to believe that with 30 years of the world becoming more and more connected via communications technology, admits an era rife with talk of Afrika supposedly containing ‘the worlds fastest economies’ and all the money spent on PR in the entertainment industry, that no one among the hundreds of people involved is this effort had the sense to raise a red flag about the ridiculous nature of the lyrics and the thoroughly outdated image they project about an entire continent and its people.
Indeed we could all jump on the defensive, brandishing images of sky scrapers and motorways in Abuja, Nairobi and Johannesburg, complete with proof that Afrika very well does know that it is Christmas time. But we should ask ourselves why should we have to?
In many ways, doing so only lends itself to reinforcing the Eurocentric ideals explicit in the BandAid tribute. The very question “Do They Know Its Christmas?” is designed to promote the idea that Europe and the culture of Europeans is the axis upon which the world turns. Therefore in order to be happy, developed and civilised, Afrika must have what Europe has, look how Europe looks and celebrate what Europeans celebrate.
But why not flip the script? Why not ask Europe if they know it’s Homowo, Iri Ji, Inxwala, Eje, Umkhosi or any number of the harvest festivals indigenous to the Afrikan Culture. Why not ask that question and promote the joys and wonders of living in a tropical environment where food grows on trees rather than having to be bought in a supermarket. Or why are we not able to say; “No but we do know of the Pan-Afrikan celebration of Kwanzaa, specifically designed to reconnect us with those Afrikan festivals after many of us lost them as a result of British slavery & colonisation, during which we were only allowed …I mean FORCED to celebrate Christmas.” And after that, how bout we gather a whole bunch of Afrobeats artists bemoaning the lack of fertile soil and sunshine in Britain, highlighting the fact that 1 in 4 children in Britain are said to be living in poverty…???
The point being that western values and cultural ideals need not be the stick by which Afrikan well-being and happiness is measured on any level. Therefore Afrikans need not know it’s Christmas at all and certainly don’t need Western acts of charity in order to bring it to us.
On a broader scale however, the fact is that the Band Aid lyrics are a pop music rendition of the song that the western media has been composing and performing for the last 4 months. An elaborate symphony in which a disease affecting 3 nations becomes an epidemic affecting the entirety of West Afrika, or Afrika as a whole in some projections. Complete with a choir singing beautiful harmonies of disease ravaged Afrikans, incapable of lending a kiss or shake a hand let alone healing a sickness, despite the fact that thousands of doctors across Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone and Benin are doing exactly that. If Ebola is what they say it is, it is no doubt a horrible disease that must be tackled. But proportionally speaking, the flu is a greater threat to lives of people in the UK and USA than Ebola is to Afrika – and those who compose this symphony are very well aware of this, which suggests that there is certainly an agenda behind the promotion of this crisis at this time.
So as fellow #TeamTBB journalist Kunga Dread recently asked in a conversation, it’s all well good complaining, but what are we going to do about it. Well here are my humble suggestions in answering that question.
GET INFORMED…
There are a number of upcoming events exploring Ebola from an Afrikan perspective. We shall ensure that TBB keeps its finger on the pulse in order to inform readers. Some organsiations are the Institute of Afrikan Wellness, The interim National Afrikan Peoples Parliament, Elbow Out Ebola and others and will explore the crisis from medical as well as the political and economics perspectives.
It is important to keep an open mind while being informed. Take for example the fact that the USA has pledged at least 4,000 military troops to West Afrika to fight Ebola; Significantly more than were initially sent to Iraq to fight Islamic State Militants, supposedly hell bent on destroying America. The number of actual doctors it has sent pales in comparison.
Serious questions must be asked about the intentions of US involvement therefore and Liberian Doctor, Cyril Broderick is doing just that. To quote from his article“Ebola, AIDS Manufactured By Western Pharmaceuticals, US DoD?”;
“The World Health Organization (WHO) and several other UN Agencies have been implicated in selecting and enticing African countries to participate in the testing events, promoting vaccinations, but pursuing various testing regiments.”
The ravages of a disease on a nation are often more to do with the ability to treat it than the nature of the disease itself. Therefore, this is as much about the political and economic conditions as it is about a medical crisis. The trick is to drum up so much fear, that the idea of western “WE NEED TO ACT NOW!!!” assistance appears to be the only logical solution and that is a perception that needs to be challenged.
BOYCOTT THE BAND AID SINGLE…
Not only for the stupidity of the lyrics, but for the farce of British charity that it promotes and the disrespect that it shows to Afrikan humanity. A note of appreciation to FuseODG for declining the offer to take part in Band Aid 30. Thank you for the example you set.
GET INVOLVED…
We live in a world that promotes Charity over Activism. This is because Charity maintains the present status quo. Ever wondered why with all the billions given to charities over the past 30 years the problems they purport to be solving remain the same and worsen? It’s because charity is designed to present the illusion of addressing and issue while imprisoning people in ongoing crisis management.
Activism instead challenges the status quo. It is designed to address not just the crisis, but the context in which the crisis is created. As PhD student Robtel Neajai Pailey brilliantly pointed out on BBC’s Sunday Morning Live:
“If Britain wants to help Afrika, it needs change its policies towards Afrika”.
Although the scope of the discussion and the arrogance of some of the other guests did not allow her to expand on this point, it was the most essential contribution made to the debate. Clearly for Britons like Esther Rantzen It is much more palatable to portray poor helpless diseased Afrikans, than it is to speak the truth about Multi-National corporations and western governments. But this is the reality that must be addressed.
There is no such thing as poverty in Afrika, there is only impoverishment; conditions created by western nations and their institutions that in turn retard Afrikan nation’s ability to manage its own welfare. Take the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for example, who collaborate in imposing loans tied to “Structural Adjustments Programs”. Though the programs are said to improve the economies of the nations, it does so at the expense of the nation’s ability to develop its own infrastructure in farming and pharmaceuticals to name but two areas. In doing so when crises such as Ebola come around, the nation is ill equipped to manage it and therefore western “help” is needed. The GDP may increase, but this has little to no effect on the living conditions of the people.
Take as another related example the absurd situation in which after centuries of having the human and material wealth of Afrika all but sucked dry in order to make them super powers of America and Europe; today we have what is known as “Third World Debt”, where the national budget can not serve the needs of the people because the government remains indebted to repay high interest loans of the west.These are on going issues that need to be address consistently, because you don’t solve problems by addressing crisis, you solve problems by changing conditions. So in order to help the people, we must change the economic relationship between Britain and Afrika. We must not just cancel, but repudiate Third World Dept as a criminal and unjust act. As many people who know about Ebola, need to know about IMF, World Bank, WHO and their policies in relation to Afrika.
Seeing as we are talking music here, it would be a good idea if Black UK artists did like Tiken Jah Fakoly, Amadou & Mariam, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare as well as people like Sizzla and gather to do a song. No need to name drop here, but how powerful would it be if Grime, Afrobeats, Hip-Hop, Reggae and Soul artists from UK collaborate to counter the propaganda of BandAid, highlighting the issues outlined above and encourage people to buy the song in order to help fund not just charities, but activist organizations, especially those the ground in Afrika who are challenging the ongoing injustices on a daily basis do their best to help and serve the people against innumerable odds, so that they truly seize to continue?
Just a thought I am putting out there…
Fantastic read, couldn’t agree more!