Live Aid led to the patronising ‘save Africa’ industry. We don’t need a musical about it

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Thirty-eight years since the concert, the false narrative about a broken continent plagued by poverty, conflict, corruption and disease still persists

ome people love musicals. I am not a fan . That’s why I rarely pay attention to notices about new ones in the making. That changed last week when I saw thefor a musical at the Old Vic about the 1985 Live Aid concert, which raised money for the devastating famine in Ethiopia. It made me sit up and take a deep, slow breath.was so much more than just a concert for me. It left a lasting and unpleasant legacy that has shaped the story of Africa and how the world sees us.

But its portrayal of Africa triggered the birth of a patronising industry whose mission it was to “save Africa”. And today, business is booming.The problem with the save Africa industry is the attitude of privilege in which it often comes wrapped. It is fed by and entirely reliant on a single, outdated story of Africa that was perpetuated and entrenched by the Livephenomenon. Daytime TV in the UK is replete with adverts from international NGOs that continue to use the Live Aid model.

I was one of the 1.5 billion who watched the original concert. I was in my late teens and witnessed the iconic gathering of superstars from my bedroom in London. As a Nigerian born in Lagos and educated in the UK, it took me a moment to realise that the version of Africa that Live Aid was selling the world was very different to the one in which I grew up.

It was well articulated by the journalist and explorer Henry Morten Stanley in his first book, Through the Dark Continent in 1878, about his travels in Africa. In it, he shared this insight: “The savage only respects force, power, boldness, and decision.”

 

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