Two Annoying White Men

When Canada's Globe & Mail newspaper thought it was OK to get two white, Irish men to edit a special issue of the paper on Africa.

"Bono chats with The Globe and Mail's Stephanie Nolen, a former Africa correspondent for the paper." (Image: Globe & Mail.)

Another year, another “special” Africa issue. For today, it’s Canada’s version of a paper of record,  The Globe and Mail, guest edited by the OGs of Team Save Africa, Bono and Bob Geldof (B&B). The paper describes them as “anti-poverty activists.” The paper’s publisher said this with a straight face: “”Bono and Sir Bob have valuable insights and knowledge on the future of Africa.” This is all part of Canadian prep for the G20 and G8 coming up. In their first order of business, B&B answered the very tough question: Who speaks for Africa? (The Globe and Mail had invited readers to send in questions.) Why, asked one reader, does it take two white men, both Irish, to discuss the positive things that are happening in Africa? Why, indeed?

Well I don’t know, because they don’t actually answer the question. Note that part of the impetus for this issue was to highlight “the Africa you don’t know.” B&B, of course, only go on about the Africa they want us to know, the poor one that cannot function without their intervention. And, yes, they get that they’re “annoying,” says Bob. And? Bono, for his part, takes it a bit further. He “doesn’t see color,” he says. He “forgets,” you see (must be nice). Perhaps what he doesn’t see is that there are others more qualified than he to do this job. Not many, of course, come endorsed by both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Bono does, he reminds us.  That Bono—the one thing he never forgets is to namedrop.

Thankfully, B&B aren’t the only ones in charge today. The all-around awesome Ory Okolloh is serving as digital guest editor, which means she’s running globeandmail.com’s world site today. For this, I’ll gladly put up with B&B.

Further Reading

After the uprising

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In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

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What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.