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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
And there received’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time/The best present they’ll get this yr is life (oooh)/The place nothing ever grows, no rain or river flows/Do they understand it’s Christmas time, in any respect?
Forty years in the past, these excruciating lyrics to Do They Realize it’s Christmas?, written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, captured the west’s emotional response to what tv broadcaster Michael Buerk had referred to as a “biblical famine” in Ethiopia. They represented a heartfelt, if patronising and clumsy, effort to reckon with the unfolding tragedy and to lift cash. The tune was primary for 5 weeks and introduced in £8mn.
This week, singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran stated he would favor it if his vocals, recorded for a 2014 revival of the Band Help charity single, have been left off a fortieth anniversary model to be launched this Christmas. “A decade on and my understanding of the narrative related to this has modified,” he stated. He’s proper.
Sheeran shared a publish by British-Ghanaian vocalist Fuse ODG who stated the lyrics “perpetuate damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s financial progress, tourism and funding [and] gas pity somewhat than partnership”.
At this level, some readers will likely be decrying one other “woke” deconstruction of excellent intentions. They’d be mistaken.
In Ethiopia, which adopted Christianity in AD325, just a few centuries earlier than its architects carved superb church buildings into the rocks of Lalibela, individuals knew full properly it was Christmas. Calendrical confusion was not the problem. The issue was drought and, extra importantly, the willingness of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to crush rise up utilizing hunger as a device of conflict.
To sing that won’t have aroused as a lot sympathy. It could actually have been tougher to scan. However at the least it’s an approximation of the reality. As Amartya Sen has written, any lasting effort to eradicate famine, in Ethiopia or wherever else, has to start out with politics, not the climate.
The song’s unlucky use of the phrase “Africa” supposedly took place after Ure identified that Ethiopia had too many syllables. It was an unlucky creative swap, conflating a tragedy in a single nation with the alleged actuality of a whole continent of 54 nations — bigger than China, India, the US and Europe mixed.
It’s true there received’t be a lot snow this Christmas in Africa, which could be fairly scorching, notably within the Sahara, although there will likely be some on the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro a number of thousand kilometres south. As for “no river flows”, it is perhaps pertinent at this level to recall the Nile and the Congo, the world’s longest and deepest rivers respectively.
Treating Africa as a single nation, in addition to geo-illiterate, can have sensible implications. When there was an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea in 2014, vacationers cancelled safaris to Kenya 8,000 kilometres away. That’s the equal of placing New York off your bucket checklist as a result of there’s hassle in Santiago, Chile. Some financiers consider African states and corporations pay an excessive amount of to borrow as a result of traders misunderstand African danger.
This isn’t about phoney boosterism. Forty years on, tragedies are nonetheless unfolding in elements of the continent. In Sudan there’s a ghastly civil war that would additionally result in famine. There may be drought within the Horn of Africa, and within the Sahel a jihadist insurgency and a domino-chain of coups are threatening stability. Ethiopia has gone via one other vicious conflict, although since Mengistu was toppled in 1991 it has been one of many world’s quickest rising economies.
In brief, there are issues to rejoice, issues to lament and issues to shake your fist at. Nigeria’s Afrobeats stars are packing stadiums, a Tanzanian author received the Nobel Prize, artists from throughout the continent are wowing audiences on the Venice Biennale.
Africa’s cities are throbbing with youthful creativity and in too many instances dominated by ageing thugs. The usage of cellular cash has unfold to just about each nook of the continent. Prior to now 40 years, common life expectancy has risen by 14 years. British economist Joan Robinson’s characterisation of India is true of Africa: no matter you say about it, you may as well say the alternative.
All this, admittedly, is perhaps laborious to seize in a tune, particularly one designed to open tear ducts and wallets. However the Band Help single is years previous its sell-by date. Geldof is aware of as a lot, calling it one of many two worst songs in historical past. He additionally admitted to writing the opposite one. This Christmas, hum alongside should you should. Simply skip the lyrics.
