Let's give Africa a chance

There are more modern names, too: groups such as Coldplay and Scissor Sisters, and Ms Dynamite adding a rare black face to tomorrow's Hyde Park line-up.

If it seems little has changed between 1985's Live Aid and 2005's Live 8, then this is all too true for many Africans. The continent is still riddled by poverty, trapped by debt and bedevilled by corruption.

Whereas Live Aid was about money, Live 8 is about awareness. Coming a week before the G8 summit in Scotland, Sir Bob hopes to pile on the pressure on the leaders of Britain, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia to improve African trade, aid and debt.

The sudden attention lavished on the continent after years of neglect has raised hope that its massive problems finally could be tackled. "There is a moral awakening abroad, probably the greatest awakening since the movement to end slavery in the 18th century," said Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Those who have worked to help Africa for many years are more cautious. They know the scale of the difficulties and the intransigence of a Western society with too many reasons to maintain the status quo.

"Anything that raises awareness, let's do it," is the Reverend David Casswell's verdict on Live 8. "Most of these groups are trying to use their celebrity to make a point in the way all of us should use what we can to make the point, so good for them."

The vicar of Clifton, York, leads by example. Last year he went with a group of parishioners to Rwanda to help build homes for women widowed in the massacre there 11 years ago. Later this month he accompanies church members on a trip to help charity workers in Tanzania.

But while he endorses the aims of Live 8 he is more cautious about what the G8 summit will achieve.

"If the G8 really changed the system, I think it would have great benefits," he said. "I wonder about some of the things that are being discussed, whether they're really going to change things in African countries. Are we still putting limitations on the deals? That's my fear."

Africa's debts is something the developed world should deal with "almost in isolation from the African countries. We know that we have imposed this impossible repayment situation on them.

"The West needs to sort it out from their own conscience's point of view.

"Trade is quite separate. We need to get fair trade with these countries so they can play on the same level playing field."

Having failed to land a ticket to Live 8, Jane Carter will be watching it on television tomorrow. The chief executive of International Service, the York-based charity which promotes development in West Africa and elsewhere, believes Live 8 has already helped raise awareness.

"People are understanding the issues more. They know this is not just a question of handing out food aid after a famine. It's more fundamental than that, structural changes have to be made," she said.

She hopes G8 can deliver a real breakthrough. "I get the impression that Blair wants to stake his place in history by bringing about change in Africa and I do believe he feels passionately about that.

"It's quite a pleasant change."

But progress must rapidly accelerate if the UN's millennium development goals for Africa are going to be achieved by the target date of 2015. These include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; and a reduction in child mortality.

"I like to be optimistic, but wouldn't want to be to confident there's really going to be a big change."

According to Dr Allison Drew, senior political lecturer at York University and an expert on African development, Live 8 will increase general interest in the continent.

Does the G8 summit give her hope? "Perhaps not high hopes. I hope there's some significant relief of the debt burden. That's one issue that could make a big difference."

Changing the world's unfair trading rules may be more of a challenge, "particularly the protective barriers on European farm produce. That may be a stumbling block for African farmers".

Jane Carter makes the point that a cotton farmer in Burkina Faso struggles to export his crop because he is undercut by the cotton farmer in Louisiana, thanks to US government subsidies.

In this way the West continues its colonial approach to Africa as a resource to be used and abused for our benefit. If the continent were free to make the most of its natural wealth in minerals and agricultural land it could thrive.

Africa is so vast, its problems so deep-seated, that it is hard to contemplate a way forward. Jane advocates the personal approach. Write to your MP, make a contact with an orphanage or a junior football team on the continent. Take an active interest: more information can be found on her charity's website, www.internationalservice.org.uk.

For the Rev David Casswell, visiting Africa brought greater understanding. "The bishop in Rwanda told us: 'There's a difference between sending money and coming yourself. If you send money we know you're concerned. If you come we can sense your love'."

David believes sending money from York would not have seen the houses built: only their presence in the community ensured that.

"We like to salve our consciences by sending money. If we were to say, let's get actively more involved on their terms we could see where the money's going and the system would become more accountable."

Thanks to global satellites, Rwandans can now see how the other half lives. David watched CNN and Sky TV in restaurants there.

"All the trash you see on TV, and the adverts, seemed so out of place. It made us a bit ashamed of Western values.

"But we didn't sense any antagonism at all from the Rwandans. They seemed very grateful that people had bothered to come."

He found the contrast between their society and ours stark.

"We were at school with 600 kids. Most of them were orphans but they sang for us, they danced for us. We brought some footballs for them and they cheered and cheered; it wasn't a show. There was a genuine delight in small things.

"You do wonder, as we impose our Western lifestyle, whether it's really worth exporting.

"I go into Canon Lee School. I love going in, the kids are great. But there's nothing like the joy I saw in Rwanda."

Jane had a similar experience in Mali. There she saw teenage girl servants learning their alphabet at an evening class after a 12-hour day cleaning and washing. She found it very moving that they had been denied the educational opportunities her own children enjoy.

More uplifting was the women's cooperative which offered loans for varied ventures. She saw "women sitting under a tree going through their accounts, feeling really positive about repaying the loans, talking about their small enterprises" - enterprises that made them enough money to buy shoes for their kids or medicine for their parents.

Granting Africans independence in this way is the key to rehabilitating the continent, says Dr Allison Drew, who taught in Ghana and travelled widely throughout southern Africa.

This can partly be achieved by African leaders working with each other to create better roads, renewable energy and improved communications.

It also entails setting up developments in every community so Africans can go beyond subsistence living and reclaim their own destiny.

International Service works to provide education, to promote children's rights and to offer vocational training, among other programmes.

Ordinary Africans don't ask for much, says Jane Carter. "They want the right to a dignified life, to send their kids to school, to earn enough money to get a roof over their heads and food for their families."

It isn't much. The next two weeks may determine whether millions of Africans can look forward to just such a future.

Updated: 12:16 Friday, July 01, 2005