On Nov. 25, Band Assist launched the “final remix” of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” the rock charity single from 40 years in the past that, along with no matter good it has finished, additionally broadcasts a story that undermines a complete continent’s dignity and company. The recording has raised tens of millions for humanitarian support however has additionally furthered misrepresentations which have lengthy justified treating Africa as a clean slate for Western intervention.
In 1984, Bob Geldof, then the lead singer for the Boomtown Rats, introduced collectively a supergroup of British and Irish rock stars to carry out “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a track he co-wrote after seeing BBC studies of widespread famine in Ethiopia. The lyrics are a pop-song paean to colonialism, paying homage to Hegel’s nineteenth century considering when he dismissed Africa as “unhistorical, undeveloped” and “devoid of morality, religions and political structure.”
Traces corresponding to “The place nothing ever grows / No rain nor rivers move” and “Effectively tonight, thank God it’s them as a substitute of you” painted Ethiopia as helpless, barren and depending on Western salvation. In 1984, the track, accompanied by wrenching famine pictures, simplified a fancy disaster, lowering the nation’s historic, cultural and non secular identification to a caricature of despair for Western audiences.
The Ethiopian famine of 1984 was removed from a simple pure catastrophe. It was exacerbated by the civil battle between Ethiopia’s Soviet-aligned Derg regime and rebel teams such because the Tigrayan Individuals’s Liberation Entrance supported by Western nations. Chilly Struggle geopolitics turned the famine right into a proxy battleground, with the U.S. and U.Ok. offering each famine reduction and covert help to insurgents in search of to weaken the Derg.
The unique Band Assist launch set a file for Christmas gross sales within the U.Ok., and eight months later, Geldof organized Stay Assist, a televised live performance that attracted greater than a billion viewers in more than 100 countries, or roughly a 3rd of humanity. Broadcast over 16 hours from Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium (since demolished) in Philadelphia, it was a landmark cultural occasion that includes performances by David Bowie, Madonna, Paul McCartney and dozens extra, and was attended by British royalty, together with Princess Diana. The spectacle raised an astonishing $50 million in pledges, alongside extra income from sold-out merchandise. It was hailed as the head of humanitarian success.
Nevertheless, behind the euphoric Stay Assist headlines lay darkish questions. In a memoir, Fikre Selassie Wogderess, Ethiopia’s prime minister from 1987 to 1989, mentioned solely $20 million value of support really reached the nation within the mid-’80s. Experiences — denied by Geldof and, in a single occasion, retracted by the BBC — have recommended that a number of the funds might have landed in insurgent arms. Since 1985, the Band Assist Charitable Belief is estimated to have raised more than $178 million for African reduction, however the broader context can’t be ignored.
Past the famine, the West’s involvement in Ethiopia become overt political meddling. In 1991, through the fall of the Derg, the U.Ok. and U.S. orchestrated a peace convention in London that enabled the TPLF to rise to energy. This minority-led authorities dominated Ethiopia for 27 years, exacerbating ethnic tensions and sowing the seeds of instability that proceed to plague the nation. The parallels with the Berlin Convention of 1884 — 2024 marks its one hundred and fortieth anniversary — the place European powers divided Africa for his or her acquire, are hanging. Each occasions reveal a sample of exterior forces imposing political buildings on Africa to serve their pursuits, heedless of the continent’s advanced histories and various peoples.
Band Assist’s long-term impression on Africa’s picture is equally troubling. The branding of Ethiopia — and by extension, Africa — as a monolithic land of struggling has been repeated via the years with revivals of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” together with Band Assist II in 1989, Band Assist 20 in 2004, Band Assist 30 in 2014 and now Band Assist 40, shaping how the world sees and engages with Africa, and little doubt influencing funding, collaboration and coverage choices.
The lyrics have been edited in response to critics calling the song demeaning and rife with colonial tropes, however it stays a self-congratulatory and tone-deaf train. A majority of Ethiopians are Christians; the nation adopted Christianity as early because the 4th century AD. Ethiopians knew it was Christmas within the winter of 1984, and so they understand it now — regardless of the track’s patronizing query.
And Ethiopia continues to be misrepresented within the Western creativeness. Removed from being a helpless land, it’s the cradle of human civilization with a legacy as a pacesetter in Africa’s battle in opposition to colonialism. Though the nation in 2024 is not any utopia — its challenges are actual — it has survived a century of exterior interference and inside struggles. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responded succinctly to the 2024 Band Assist remix: “A great trigger that has not developed with the occasions may find yourself doing extra hurt than good.”
The relentless revival of narratives centered on helplessness and dependency distorts the wealthy and sophisticated realities of Ethiopia and Africa. Moderately than perpetuating outdated stereotypes, we should elevate African voices and champion a future the place Africa leads and evokes by itself phrases.
Elias Wondimu divides his time between Ethiopia and Los Angeles. He’s the founding director of Tshehai Publishers, the editorial director of the Worldwide Journal of Ethiopian Research and a senior fellow with the Worldwide Strategic Research Assn.
