African British perspective on the politics of live 8, G8 and the UK media

In the focus on Africa in 2005, it has often been hard to find
African voices as opposed to European “experts”, while self-
proclaimed saviours like Bob Geldof have been all too quick to
declare, for example, that ‘a great justice has been done’ by the G8
meetings.

Africa is helpless. Africa is poor. Africa is, according to the song,
a ‘world of dread and fear’ (Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the
World) written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure)

These myths have pervaded the British psyche and its media for
decades. The ignorance, racism and misinformation that inform these
culturally and politically constructed illusions were particularly
prevalent earlier this year preceding the G8 Summit at Gleneagles.
The Summit and the subsequent rowdiness stirred by its supporters -
the most boisterous and arrogant of who was the musician, Bob Geldof
– ensured that people throughout the British Isles were forced to
confront one of the greatest injustices perpetrated by humankind on
their fellow human; the reality of how centuries of economic and
human exploitation that has resulted in the people of the Continent
of Africa facing poverty, malnutrition, disease and ultimately,
cultural disempowerment.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to seriously and intelligently discuss
the issues and solutions that relate to Africa’s development and
empowerment was lost as an overtly racist motivation informed the
media agenda and ensured that not only were the same old myths
propagated about Africa but that new ones were added to the mix. In
addition, the guilt complex that inhabits the British psyche was
easily pacified by white wrist bands or, as in the case of many a
right-wing newspaper editor, by attempting to dissolve any sense of
responsibility that people in the West might feel for repairing the
damage their politics and economies have inflicted on African countries.

As an organisation whose primary work currently involves monitoring
the media for offensive representation and actively challenging the
inaccuracies and inequality inherent in that representation, we have
noted the flourishing trend of myth making and the equally prevalent
tendency to actively silence informed African voices who talk about
African affairs in favour of European experts who talk from a
eurocentric perspective about African affairs, ultimately to the
benefit of their respective nations. This becomes increasingly
problematic when the solutions that the so-called European experts
want to instigate are in direct contradiction with what African
people themselves want and need.

Even as a media organisation, we have found it challenging to say the
least, to find African voices in the mainstream media talking about
African affairs. And so, the Making of an Impoverished History was
written. Initially, it was to be a brief article summarising the
media’s approach to Africa but we soon realised that ‘brief’ was
perhaps not the way to go about this. We had to contextualise the
matter, historically and globally, and so embarked on making this a
more comprehensive but accessible report that provides a more joined
up picture of the politics behind the G8 Summit, the Live 8 event and
its figure head, Bob Geldof, and the British media debate about Africa.

In highlighting these issues, came the inevitability of dealing with
the notion of giving charity versus the responsibility of encouraging
justice and how the British media have fought against the latter with
strategies of defence and denial. This gave rise to headlines
including ‘Why I wont be squandering any more money on Africa' and
documentaries such as Channel 4’s ‘Living with Aids’ which, along
with a barrage of other media outputs reinforced the notion that
Africa’s current situation is the fault of African people and
therefore people of the West need not feel a sense of responsibility
about African issues. Of course, when you look into the instances of
corruption, fraud and commercial exploitation that occur on the
Continent, a European, American and most recently Asian corporate or
indeed governmental influence is not far behind. From the rampant
practice of selling cheap and second-hand rifles to just about anyone
who will pay the right price, to the contemptuous reluctance of
Western banking institutions to relinquish the financial benefits
they get from holding the accounts of a small number of corrupt
African leaders, corruption and exploitative profit making has proved
to be a very Western affair.

The Make Poverty History campaign, the Live 8 concert and the Geldof
agenda also pervaded the media reporting. Here, the media found an
apparently liberal guise behind which they could conceal their
prejudices and racist presumptions. Bob Geldof, far from being the
liberal saviour of Africa as many referred to him as, displayed his
utter contempt for African opinion in the way he actively ignored it
and ensured that his voice, his agenda and his vision of Africa was
viewed as the definitive stopping point. At the time, this was hard
enough for African people to bare but following the redundant
exercise that was the G8 Summit and the way in which its seemingly
laudable objectives have subsequently fallen, and some would say been
pulled apart, Sir Bob’s announcement that ‘a great justice has been
done’ is not only arrogant but disenfranchising and frustrating for
the African people who know that his ridiculous assertion could not
be further from the truth. Of course, now the media are suffering
from Africa fatigue and therein sets the apathy.

In researching this report, it became obvious that for African
people, the solutions to Africa’s issues are multifaceted and
originate not in the corridors of Westminster or the White House but
from African people themselves. The stories that we will rarely if
ever hear about in the media are some of the success stories of
African development, the workable solutions designed for and by us,
examples of good governance and the revolution needed to overturn
trading injustice. Some of these are addressed in our report but in
truth, because of its specific remit, it is something that will have
to be covered in depth at a later date. However, we have always been
a solutions orientated organisation and therefore ended the report
with ways in which we can continue to aid our own progress and the
rebuilding of our great Continent. The British government clearly
have responsibilities including the enforcing of anti-corruption
legislation and stemming its drain of skilled African people from the
Continent. However, we also focused on some of the ways in which the
African Union, African governments and African people in Diaspora can
develop Africa through self-determinate means.