Rock of wisdom

Sat, Oct 24 06:49 AM

Ethiopia has once again appealed for urgent food aid. Hit by another drought, they requested 159,410 tonnes of food aid at a donors conference, for 6.2 million people of the landlocked country. This, 25 years after the autocratic rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam, when over a million perished in the 1984 "great famine".

That year saw devastation in East Africa; the response changed the history of aid — and aid's relationship with music. Rather than just government and NGO handouts, rockstars too responded. Largely on Bob Geldof's initiative, Band Aid was set up in collaboration with some of the most famous faces of the time, including Bono, who came to make the cause his own. The result was the sensational single "Do they know it's Christmas?" which went to No 1, more than a million sold in the first week alone. All studio time was free, and when Margaret Thatcher's government called to tax the CD, an unlikely stand-off between musician and politician resulted, one which the musician won. These days it's been Bono who commands the reins with his "red" campaigns for AIDS/HIV.

Increasingly, East Africa is called an "aid junkie" and many want a more permanent solution. In fact the person behind the face that mobilised action then, Birhan Woldu, has spoken out against aid. "25 years ago, my life was saved by... food from organisations like Band Aid... So it may seem strange for me to say now that to get food aid from overseas is not the best way."

For countries predominantly agriculture-based, a dependence on imported food shouldn't last; development and longer-term strategies are needed too. Artists have led the fight for a broad approach to East African development. It's for other donors to follow suit.

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