FUSE ODG: WHY ‘BAND AID’ SUCKS FOR AFRICA

In 2014, Ghanaian-British artist Fuse ODG declined an invitation to join Band-Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' 30th-anniversary remake. The charity single was first released in 1984 to fundraise for famine relief in Ethiopia.

This year, on the 40th anniversary, he's released his response track called 'We Know It's Christmas' - and has been vocal, as in this clip from a recent LBC radio interview, in his criticisms of patronising and counterproductive Western aid initiatives for Africa.

He argues that although Band-Aid has raised millions over the years for those affected by various humanitarian catastrophes - from famine in East Africa to ebola in West Africa - its narrow portrayal of the continent as a charity case and a place eclipsed by war, suffering, and disease, has done more harm than good. This, he says, has resulted in Africa and its people being dehumanized by undignified imagery and its potential not being realized as the negative depiction discourages investment into the continent as a viable market of opportunity - contributing to the perpetual cycle of poverty rather than alleviating it.

Many agree with his critique: in a Guardian newspaper article in 2023, Nigerian author Moky Makura wrote that the charity song "triggered the birth of a patronizing industry whose mission it was to 'save Africa.'" Since its release, aid has become an entire industry, seemingly helpful in the short term but whose longer-term impact is ultimately negative - as many, like Fuse ODG, contend.

Research has shown that Africa loses more each year than it receives in aid and that aid has only stunted development and economic growth on the continent - something Zambian economists and author Dambisa Moyo terms 'Dead Aid.'

Furthermore, Fuse ODG argues that not only do Band-Aid's lyrics perpetuate stereotypes and offer a one-dimensional view of the continent, but they are also offensive and reductive.

Video credit: @LBC

Sources:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Fuse_ODG%2C_the_British-Ghanaian_recording_artist_pictured_at_the_UK-Africa_Investment_Summit_in_London%2C_20_January_2020_%2849414394638%29.jpg