Bleeding hearts & liberal fools

The idea seems awesome. People from around the world uniting in song to raise awareness and funds for an ostensibly important cause. Others drawing and meditating on love and sending benevolent wishes to a continent in need. Too bad it is such a flawed and badly misguided branding mission that perpetuates an abhorrent myth.

Africa with the begging bowl. Africa the continent where flies collect in the corners of kids eyes.  The continent Bob Geldof desperately tried to save. Unfortunately despite his valiant efforts Geldof didn’t end poverty in Africa (or anywhere else in the world), but did manage to recreate his impoverished career as a pop star. Following BandAid and LiveAid which firmly positioned Ethiopia as the kwashiorkor capital of the world, Geldof became adviser to Bono’s DATA and the ONE Campaign, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II. That paved the way for a tsunami of celebrity ‘do gooders’ like Bono, Oprah, and oh God help us Madonna and Brangelina to make Africa their pet cause project.

But not even that was as terrible as the 2007 celebrity face painting fest which was the Conde Naste “I Am African” campaign.” [A news flash Mischa Barton, Richard Gere, Lucy Liu, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Bowie, Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz et al, being born in Africa makes you African, not badly placed paint, curio shop beads and celebrating your celebrity in an insulting advertising campaign.]

Inspired by Geldof&Bono Inc’s sincere efforts to position Africa as the most blighted, hapless continent on the planet, StarBucks has launched the equally appalling “StarBucks Love Project“. In this branding extravaganza StarBucks is the hero that gets the whole world to sing-along to that Beatles classic “all you need is love” in order to save an Africa from dying of Aids. That’s aside from the cutesy social media fun stuff like drawing hearts and other Hallmarkish icons to show how much you care for the aids infested landmass.

Not since Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Culture Club, George Michael, Kool and the Gang, Sting, Phil Collins and Bananarama got together to sing Do They Know It’s Christmas, has a moist eyed world so earnestly sung (and drawn) their collective hearts out for our ailing continent.

MandyLives!com’s message to StarBucks? Next time you want a cause to resurrect your brand keep your idealistic, patronising, condescending, indulgent paws off Africa.

Uzodinma Iweala said it best in an oped in The Washington Post:

“Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent’s corrupt leaders, warlords, “tribal” conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like “Can Bono Save Africa?” or “Will Brangelina Save Africa?” The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and “civilization.”

“There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one’s cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head — because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West’s fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West’s prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.”