Poor Ed Sheeran. Ten years ago he was no doubt thrilled and flattered to be part of the Band Aid remake, following in the footsteps of superstars such as Boy George and Bono to sing on the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?
But 2014 was a very different era from today. Now, as the song is remixed and rereleased for the umpteenth time, he’s deeply embarrassed to be linked to it.
With black critics denouncing Band Aid as ‘colonial’ and ‘racist’, no wonder Ed is scrambling to disassociate himself from the song. ‘Had I had the choice,’ he wrote on social media, ‘I would have respectfully declined my use of vocals.’
And then, because every pop star –however successful – dreads saying the wrong thing, he built a pre-apology into his statement: ‘This is just my personal stance. I hope it’s a forward-looking one. Love to all x.’
Ed’s bound to be keenly aware of the backlash endured by TV presenter Stacey Dooley after she was accused of posing as a ‘white saviour’ five years ago when she was photographed cuddling a small boy in Uganda for Comic Relief. Stacey meant well, but it wasn’t a good look for some.
I don’t have much sympathy for Ed. If he regrets something he did a decade ago, he should have the dignity to accept responsibility, not try to wriggle out of it. (And why didn’t he have ‘the choice’?)
But I do agree that it’s time to bury Do They Know It’s Christmas? – and not just because it’s a horrible dirge.
No one can deny that the charity appeal launched by Boomtown Rat Bob Geldof in 1984, in response to a devastating famine in Ethiopia, has done a huge amount of good and it continues to raise significant sums of money from generous people in the UK and around the world.
Ed Sheeran has spoken out against Band Aid’s portrayal of Africa
Esther Krakue agrees that whilst Band Aid has done good, it is time to move on from its perception of the African continent
Bob Geldof has defended Band Aid, saying that children are still benefitting from its funds to this day
Defending the initiative, Geldof says that this week alone, around 8,000 children in Ethiopia have benefited from food and supplies bought with Band Aid money. Everyone who has contributed to that, whether it’s Brits buying the record or performers donating their time and talent, should feel proud of it. And I include Ed Sheeran in that.
Still, its time is over. Just as Britain no longer sends well-meaning missionaries overseas to convert the benighted inhabitants of far-flung countries, it is wrong for the West to treat Africa as a problem to be fixed with Yuletide charity and patronising videos.
Africans have felt like this for a very long time. I first heard the song as a child in Accra, the capital of Ghana, in 2004 when Band Aid celebrated its 20th anniversary.
The video bore no relation to the beautiful city with its well-fed occupants that was my home, and I found it hard to believe that people in Europe imagined our whole continent was in a perpetual state of famine and disease. My family regarded it as a grim joke. ‘Maybe we should be sending our money to help poor children in Britain,’ grumbled my uncle.
‘And I would, if they made a pop video about malnourished English kids going up chimneys or down mines, covered in dirt, with sores and bronchitis and no teeth. Because that’s the way they like to think of us.’
When I came to the UK a few years later to study, I realised he had a point. The British public is unfailingly generous, as we saw last week when Children In Need raised £39.2 million in a single night. But that appeal doesn’t depict UK youngsters as dirty and listless, covered in mud and muck, with flies crawling over their faces.
The incessant images of starving, hopeless, abandoned African children, so familiar from the Band Aid videos, are dehumanising. There’s a deeply unpleasant, Victorian ethos underlying the message: These people can’t do anything for themselves. Give money now and prove how superior you are.
Of course, most British people don’t think like that. But it’s wrong to depict black toddlers as filthy and diseased, simply to pull on the heartstrings of generous viewers. That’s the same technique used by animal aid charities to raise money for maltreated dogs and donkeys. It’s almost as if African people are being equated with animals.
Bob Geldof says that this week alone, around 8,000 children in Ethiopia have benefited from food and supplies bought with Band Aid money
Band Aid has raised over £140 million for charity since its inception
The 2024 remake of Band Aid’s Do They Know Its Christmas will feature voices from the original 1984 group
U2 frontman Bono was involved in the origianl Band Aid project
The rapper Fuse ODG, who has Ghanaian ancestry, made the point eloquently on Good Morning Britain this week. ‘There’s a way to raise money without taking away the dignity and pride and identity of people,’ he said. ‘We’ve become so numb to these images of Africa on our TV.’
Fuse made another powerful point as he mentioned the long-term economic damage done by charity. Africa’s tourism industry is badly undermined by the emphasis on everlasting famine, for example.
It’s all very well to give a couple of quid to an emergency appeal but that doesn’t go very far. We could do infinitely more good if, instead of regarding sub-Saharan Africa as a charity case, we saw it as an emerging holiday destination.
One glaring irony is that when European journalists come to cover disaster stories in Africa they tend to stay in five-star luxury. My family has always seen the intense hypocrisy of this – we joke that camera crews film the deprivation in refugee camps, then pack up their equipment and return to their luxury hotels.
You never see footage of the breakfast buffet or the reporters sipping malt whisky in an elegant lounge.
Thanks primarily to Band Aid, Britons don’t think of Ethiopia as an obvious place for a two-week winter break – unlike Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt or Marrakesh in Morocco, for instance. But there’s so much to see in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, including the continent’s largest open-air market.
And the advantage of tourism is that your money is much more likely to reach the people who need it most because you will be supporting small businesses and hotels, helping to create jobs.
In the past it has been alleged that Band Aid money was sometimes diverted to rebel troops in the war-torn Tigray region. This is an allegation that Geldof has always furiously denied.
Esther Krakue says that nowadays, people are unlikely to visit Ethiopia as a holiday destination as they still associate it with Band Aid’s portrayal of famine
Many Brits still see Ethiopia as it was depicted in the original Band Aid according to Esther Krakue
In the past it has been alleged that Band Aid money was sometimes diverted to rebel troops in the war-torn Tigray region. This is an allegation that Geldof has always furiously denied
The charity’s former 1980s field director, John James, told the Daily Mail in 2010: ‘I would be surprised if any less than 10 to 20 per cent of funds were diverted to the rebels.’ And he hinted that some donations could have gone to buy guns: ‘We would not have tolerated any direct assistance in the purchase of arms or condoned it, but just remember it was a highly complex situation. It is probable that some money was diverted to buy arms.’
Africa is a continent with many problems. But so is Europe. I’m struck by how apt some of the Band Aid lyrics are today, not to the plight of Ethiopian children but to British pensioners.
‘Say a prayer, pray for the other ones, at Christmas time it’s hard,’ sang George Michael 40 years ago. ‘There’s a world outside your window,’ chimed in Simon Le Bon and Sting, ‘And it’s a world of dread and fear.’
That could equally apply to OAPs struggling to keep warm without their winter fuel allowance in Keir Starmer’s Britain.
I’m not suggesting we repurpose the song. I just want to consign Do They Know It’s Christmas? to history.
Esther Krakue is a writer and broadcaster.