Performing for Africa?

Since the 1980s, a growing number of charity events in the Western hemisphere have combined music performances and development goals in Africa. Bob Geldof 's Band Aid project in 1984 and the subsequent Live Aid concert in 1985 in the United Kingdom and the United States, collected money for famine victims in Ethiopia. The Nelson Mandela 70 Birthday Tribute Concert in London in 1988 sought justice for freedom ghter, Nelson Mandela and the end of the racist apartheid system in South Africa. In 2005, Live 8 was aimed at putting pressure on the G8 leaders to reduce the debt of Global South countries. In some ways, big music shows appear to be a successful tool to address the challenges of African societies. However, are these outcomes sustainable, and does music charity work as a tool to overcome unsustainable conditions? By using the post-colonial theory of white charity, this chapter analyses critically the performances of these three charity events that attracted the biggest audiences worldwide in music history. Why is music used to raise awareness for the African continent? How is music, especially popular western music, used to create specic images of Africa? Do the organisers really follow humanitarian motivations or do they use their musical practices as a tool of protest within the Western political context? By looking at the performances, it becomes obvious that the impact of music charity events depend on the purpose and the structure of the event. The discourse on cultural sustainability can help to explain why even some economically successful events did not have a long-lasting effect.