The Africanization of poverty: A retrospective on 'Make poverty history'

African Affairs

Volumn 109, Issue 436, 2010, Pages 391-408

  Harrison, Graham ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONFERENCE PROCEEDING; GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH; POVERTY DETERMINANT;

AFRICA; ARTICLE; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNOLOGY; GOVERNMENT; HISTORY; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; LEGAL ASPECT; POVERTY; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL PROBLEM; SOCIAL WELFARE; UNITED KINGDOM;

AFRICA; GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 21ST CENTURY; INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; POVERTY; POVERTY AREAS; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOCIAL PROBLEMS; SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY; SOCIAL WELFARE;

AFRICA;

EID: 77954437761     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adq025     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. According to an MPH survey, 87 percent of the public was aware of the campaign. Andrew Darnton, 'Make Poverty History: end of year notes from Public Perceptions of Poverty research programme' (Andrew Darnton Research and Analysis, Clevedon, 2006), p. 6.
2. See, for example, Tess Kingham and Jim Coe, 'Review of ActionAid's MPH campaigning' (unpublished MS, 2006).
3. This general point is drawn from a substantial literature, incuding Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the nation, 1707-1837 (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2005), pp. 350 et seq.
4. Kevin Grant, A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the new slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926 (Routle-dge, London, 2005).
5. Catherine Hall, Civilising Subjects: Metropole and colony in the English imagination, 1830-1867 (Polity Press, Oxford, 2002).
6. Dorothy Hammond and Alta Jablow, The Myth of Africa (Library of Social Science, New York, NY, 1977).
7. Jan Nederveen Pieterse, White on Black: Images of Africa in Western popular culture (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1992).
8. William A. Gamson, 'Constructing social protest' in Hank Johnston and Bert Klander-mans (eds), Social Movements and Culture (UCL Press, London, 1995), pp. 85-107.
9. The UK Aid Network (UKAN) was created within BOND as a coalition around aid when MPH was being set up, unlike the other two coalitions, which were already well-established.
10. In fact, because of the effects of the tsunami in early 2005, the main spatial reference in January was to the Indian Ocean basin.
11. MPH created a detailed matrix of objectives divided into public outreach to achieve 'feel', 'know', and 'do' targets.
12. It is worth noting the fact that trade reform was always relatively underspecified and unclear in relation to the other two policy areas.
13. Henrietta Lidchi, 'All in the Choosing Eye': Charity, representation and developing world (Open University, unpublished PhD thesis, 1993).
14. Paul Harrison and Robert Palmer, News out of Africa: Biafra to Band Aid (Hilary Shipman, London, 1986).
15. VSO, The Live Aid Legacy: The developing world through British eyes (VSO, London, 2002), (March 2009).
16. The Coordination Team constituted the hub of MPH, staffed by 17 representatives of the main campaigning organizations and meeting usually once per week.
17. Interview, Steve Tibbett, former CT member, London, 5 April 2007.
18. Suggestively, an illustrative soundbite used in an MPH survey captures this: MPH as an 'empty box . . . people know that it is there, but don't know what's in it'. See MPH, 'Public Perceptions of Poverty briefing paper' (unpublished MS, MPH, 2005).
19. Interview, Tom Sharman, Action Aid, 6 March 2007; interview, Sarah Kline, former CT member from Oxfam, London, 27 March 2007.
20. Beyond this, routine discussion and consensus building was done through the Working Groups which ordinarily met fortnightly, attended by individuals seconded from various NGOs.
21. During 2005, the MPH logo could be used by coalition members for their own campaigning; thereafter the copyright has been held by Comic Relief and only used occasionally as a 'legacy' reference.
22. A World Emergency Relief survey found that 4 percent of respondents knew that MPH was a campaign coalition.
23. see 'G8 will make little or no difference' (WER, unpublished MS, 2005), p. 2.
24. See also Synovate Research, 'Public Perceptions of Poverty qualitative research findings: Wave 1' (unpublished MS), p. 20. MPH was either seen as a 'theme' connected to Geldof and others, or as a charity campaign.
25. Geraldine Bedell, Make Poverty History: How you can help defeat poverty in seven easy steps (Penguin Press, London, 2005).
26. Bernard Porter, Critics of Empire: British radicals and the imperial challenge (IB Tauris, London, 2008).
27. Previously Jubilee 2000, and Drop the Debt.
28. Stephen Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993).
29. Paul Hilder, Julie Caulier-Grice, and Kate Lalor, Contentious Citizens: Civil society's role in campaigning for social change (Young Foundation, London, 2007).
30. Anthony Payne, 'Blair, Brown and the Gleneagles agenda: Making Poverty History, or confronting the global politics of unequal development?', International Affairs 82, 5 (2006), pp. 917-35.
31. See The Guardian, 7 January 2004; New York Times, 7 February 2005. There is an irony in this title in that the Monterrey agreement stipulates that debt relief should not count against commitments to increase aid, but many G8 countries did this as part of the Gleneagles commitments.
32. The full text of the speech can be found at (March 2009).
33. Robert Cooper, 'The new liberal imperialism', The Guardian, 7 April 2002.
34. See, for instance, Tom Porteus, Britain in Africa (Zed Books, London, 2008).
35. David Booth, 'The Africa Commission Report: what about the politics?', Development Policy Review 23, 4 (2005), p. 494.
36. Africa Commission, Our Common Interest: An argument (Penguin Press, London, 2005).
37. Philip Thornton, 'G8 Summit agrees $50bn aid rise but critics attack delay', The Independent, 9 July 2005.
38. It is notable that DfID and Hilary Benn enjoyed a lower profile than might have been expected throughout 2005.
39. Interview, John Hilary, War on Want, London, 7 April 2007.
40. These concerns were expressed to journalists during 2005. See Katharine Quarmby, 'Why Oxfam is failing Africa', New Statesman, 30 May 2005.
41. Stuart Hodkinson, 'Inside the murky world of Make Poverty History', Red Pepper, 28 June 2005.
42. Both Blair and Brown routinely anthropomorphized Africa as a single entity, almost as a single person. See, for example, Blair's 'scar on the conscience' speech, and Gordon Brown, 'The challenges of 2005: forging a new compact for Africa', New Economy 11, 3 (2004), pp. 127-31.
43. Oxfam UK was commonly mentioned.
44. Andy Martin, Carolyn Culey, and Suzy Evan, 'Make Poverty History: 2005 campaign evaluation' (Firetail Limited, London, no date), p. 23.
45. In early 2006 the most common answer to a survey question asking what is MPH was: 'the slogan used by Live 8' - Darnton, 'Make Poverty History: end of year notes', p. 9.
46. The World Emergency Relief survey found that 42 percent of respondents believed that MPH was set up by Bono and Geldof. WER, 'G8 will make no difference', p. 2.
47. Joshua W. Busby, 'Bono made Jesse Helms cry: Jubilee 2000, debt relief, and moral action in international politics', International Studies Quarterly 51, 2 (2007), pp. 247-75.
48. Bono spent an extended period in Ethiopia.
49. Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty. How we can make it happen in our lifetime (Penguin Press, London, 2005), p. xvi, emphasis in the original.
50. In Mick Hume, 'It's too easy for everybody to love Live 8', Spiked, 1 July 2005, (March 2009).
51. 'We have a doable plan, it is called the Commission for Africa. That is what I have come here [Gleneagles] for, to see that fulfilled.' Geldof, at press conference with Blair, 6 July 2005 (March 2009).
52. Catriona Davis, 'Poverty, like apartheid, is man-made, says Mandela', Daily Telegraph, 4 February 2005.
53. Richard Curtis, 'Making poverty history' in Michelle P. Brown and Richard J. Kelly (eds) You're History! How people make the difference (Continuum Books, London, 2005), p. 25.
54. And Bono was a prominent performer in both events.
55. Off the record comment, campaign director of major NGO, London, 7 April 2007.
56. Martin et al., 'Make Poverty History', p. 23.
57. Nicolas Sireau, Make Poverty History: Political communication in action (Palgrave Macmil-lan, Basingstoke, 2009).
58. Clicking one's fingers every three seconds to signify a child's death from poverty.
59. Off-record comment, former CT member, 31 May 2007, London.
60. Joe Smith, Lucy Edge, and Vanessa Morris, Reflecting the Real World? How British TV portrayed developing countries in 2005 (VSO, London, 2006), pp. 7'10.
61. Interview, Kirsty McNeill, former CT member, London, 28 March 2007.
62. Victoria Newton, 'Incredible Bob sets July 2 Gig', The Sun, 7 May 2005.
63. James Hamilton '20 Years after Live Aid . . . Rockers aim to make poverty history with Live 8', Sunday Herald, 8 May 2005. Note the conflation of Live 8 with MPH in the title.
64. Martin et al., 'Make Poverty History', p. 49.
65. A rigorous Public Perceptions of Poverty survey taken throughout 2005 suggested that the 'justice not charity message was not clearly understood by the mass audience, many of whom persisted in believing that MPH was aiming to raise fund for Africa' (Darnton, 'Make Poverty History: end of year notes', p. 10).