Celebrities On African Bandwagon

I HAVE always been fascinated by black Americans flocking to South Africa for some or other reason and have admired their sense of wanting to get to learn their African roots.

But recently, those trips have become suspect. Let me begin.Until apartheid was dislodged, African-American celebrities almost never set foot in Africa until 1994.One wants to believe that if really the motive has been to get back to their roots, then certainly, there are other countries with better qualifications.How many of these folks have travelled to the DRC, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Burundi, etc? The answer is simple: there are no facilities in most of those countries and there is no Mandela.Recently, Oprah built a new US$40 million school for poor young girls in South Africa amid criticism that she should have spent that money to benefit poor students at home.Her response: She already gives millions to educate underprivileged children in the United States, and anyway, she told Newsweek, the two situations are different.South Africa has desperate poverty and rudimentary infrastructure.Just for the record, South Africa is the richest country in Africa.If Oprah is genuine in her motivation, she could have built more schools in one of the more deserving poor countries in Africa (if the motive is to alleviate poverty).Last year, a string of celebrities made genuine efforts to help Africa: at the World Economic Forum, Sharon Stone mobilised funds to buy mosquito nets for one east African country, George Clooney was at the top of raising the Darfur war when the brothers were quiet and Bono made poverty a top priority when the brothers were quiet.None of these people are African American.What “brothers” and “sisters” do is to pose for a photograph with Mandela or Tutu, fly back to the US and say: “I have been to Africa”.They don’t even go to Polokwane, some 260 km away.Ag, Shame! Audrin Mathe Via e-mailLet me begin.Until apartheid was dislodged, African-American celebrities almost never set foot in Africa until 1994.One wants to believe that if really the motive has been to get back to their roots, then certainly, there are other countries with better qualifications.How many of these folks have travelled to the DRC, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Burundi, etc? The answer is simple: there are no facilities in most of those countries and there is no Mandela.Recently, Oprah built a new US$40 million school for poor young girls in South Africa amid criticism that she should have spent that money to benefit poor students at home.Her response: She already gives millions to educate underprivileged children in the United States, and anyway, she told Newsweek, the two situations are different.South Africa has desperate poverty and rudimentary infrastructure.Just for the record, South Africa is the richest country in Africa.If Oprah is genuine in her motivation, she could have built more schools in one of the more deserving poor countries in Africa (if the motive is to alleviate poverty).Last year, a string of celebrities made genuine efforts to help Africa: at the World Economic Forum, Sharon Stone mobilised funds to buy mosquito nets for one east African country, George Clooney was at the top of raising the Darfur war when the brothers were quiet and Bono made poverty a top priority when the brothers were quiet.None of these people are African American.What “brothers” and “sisters” do is to pose for a photograph with Mandela or Tutu, fly back to the US and say: “I have been to Africa”.They don’t even go to Polokwane, some 260 km away.Ag, Shame! Audrin Mathe Via e-mail