The musician and activist dismissed the criticism as a load of nonsense.
On July 13, 1985, Bob Geldof and his colleague Midge Ure organized the Live Aid charity concert in aid of Africa hunger relief. For a total of 16 hours, numerous musicians performed at Wembley Stadium in London and at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to collect donations for Ethiopia, which is suffering from famine. Queen, U2, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and others were there. Now the 72-year-old organizer is coming under fire again because he is accused of “white saviorism”.
Bob Geldof: Condescending image of Africa?
The term white saviorism describes the phenomenon in which white people help non-white people for selfish reasons, such as being admired by others. This includes development, educational or aid work. The allegations against Geldof came from the “Guardian” critic Arifa Akbarwho took the new stage musical “Just For One Day”, which revisits this historic event almost 40 years later, as an opportunity to express their criticism of the musician.
She is of the opinion that the value of the charity gig and the new theater piece is massively influenced by white saviorism and generally puts Africa in a bad light. The charity event created “a condescending image of Africa as a continent that is desperate for and dependent on Western help.”
Bob Geldof criticizes “Guardian”
However, Bob Geldof did not leave this statement uncommented and discussed it during an appearance on “Times Radio” on Thursday (February 15). He stated that he disagreed with the idea of being a white savior and dismissed the criticism as a “load of nonsense” and claimed that such a statement “is typical of The Guardian.”
“If there is a famine in Italy and someone responds and is white, is he a white savior?” Are the only people allowed to respond to an African famine black?” he explained, adding: “Are they the only people allowed to do this? Because, wow, the people of Africa are black, so it can only be a black person doing that. If there’s a famine where people are green, do you have to be green to do that?”
He concluded: “This is a nonsensical, absolutely derogatory argument. That’s it. I think it’s nonsense.”