On December 1984, or in the year 1 BMB (before my birth), a single was released with the aim of raising money for the famine in Ethiopia. The public face of this single was The King Of Fair Weather Humanitarianism, Bob Geldof. I talked here about how it took him the better part of two years to issue any kind of statement on Gaza:
While I admit his statement was actually, quite good to be honest, I still feel it came from a place of insincerity, why did it take him close to two years to say anything? Also featured on this song was, if Bob is the King Of Fair Weather Humanitarianism, Bono is the, just a second, let me look up how monarchies work so I can form a coherent analogy. eh, okay, I’m saying Bono is the Viceroy Of Fair Weather Humanitarianism. I hope that works because I couldn’t be bothered looking up any more about monarchies.
And Bono also took more than two years to say anything about Gaza. And unlike Bob Geldof’s statement, Bono’s statement was shit. It was like, “Yeah what’s happening in Giza is terrible, free Egypt, I have to go now.”
So, I’m so sorry about this, I really know this is going to hurt you in ways you can’t imagine, but, in order to make the point I’m about to make, I will have to, subject you to “Do They Know It’s Christmas”.
I am so sorry!
Now, the first thing you might have noticed, is that they could have fed Africa, and every other continent on Earth, forty times over with the price of whatever these celebrities spent on hairspray. It was the eighties after all. So yes, that is a valid point, about the hairspray, but that’s not the point I’d like to focus in on. It’s these lyrics in particular that are, awful in every conceivable way.
“Well, tonight thank God it’s them
Instead of you”
No, not that one. Though it is quite awful that Bono sings, “Thank God the person I care about is a white Westerner”, though that’s not what I’d like to focus on today.
“Where the only water flowing
Is the bitter sting of tears”
Here it’s implied that Africa is a place that doesn’t have any water. You know, the place where humanity first evolved, and, I suppose those early humans just made do without water. But maybe I’m unfairly targeting this line. Maybe from here on out there is no further implication, that Africa doesn’t have water. Oh….
“Where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow
Do they know it’s Christmas time at all? (oh)”
Well, get out the suitcases, because there’s a lot to unpack here!
Africa is not a place where “nothing ever grows”. Africa is not a place that doesn’t have rain or rivers. Africa is an entire continent. Its geography, climate, and weather, is at least as varied as Europe, Asia, or the Americas. Here are the names of some rivers, in Africa, the place that doesn’t have any rivers, according to this merry band of people who failed geography.
The Nile (that’s even a famous one!)
The Zambezi (Britain hilariously fucked Germany over with regard to that river. It was funny, but you’d have to be there.)
Cuanza River (the biggest river in Angola)
And here are some examples of places in Africa where it rains. Let me just check. Oh yeah, most of Africa.
Look at these satellite maps of Africa:
https://www.worldmap1.com/explore-africa-satellite-map
How do you think so much of it got so green? And no, it has nothing to do with highly advanced Wakandan technologies, because Wakanda isn’t real, just like the idea of an Africa completely without water isn’t real.
Now, somebody might object to this with, “The lyrics are talking more specifically about Ethiopia, since it’s a charity single for the famine in Ethiopia.” Okay, well in that case the lyrics seem to be conflating all of Africa with Ethiopia, which is problematic in and of itself, saying all of Africa is the same as Ethiopia is just as inaccurate as saying all of Europe is like France. But even if they only meant to say Ethiopia is some hellscape without any water, that’s just not true either.
I mean, the Nile flows through Ethiopia. That’s not even some obscure river, that’s like, the celebrity of rivers. That’s a major geographical blunder!:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-major-rivers-of-ethiopia.html
Why This Kind Of View Of Africa Is Such A Problem
“Where nothing ever grows.” This line is just, I mean, Africa is simultaneously famous for, supposedly, being an expanse of desert and nothingness in all directions, and at the same time it’s famous for having a load of different type of animals. Are all of the animals carnivorous? How does that work? How do the animals survive without water?
“Do They Know It’s Christmas” is not the first, or last song, or piece of media, that contains a very, at best, patronizing, and at worst, actually dangerous view of Africa. Contained within this song, is the idea that Africa was cursed by geography and climate, and that that’s why things are so bad there. “Oh poor Africa, they just drew a bad hand when it came to their weather systems. Such a frightful, frightful place for humans to live. And let’s just ignore the fact that Africa is the birthplace of humanity.”
While it is of course, extremely problematic to assert that all people in Africa are starving or are suffering, of course that’s not true, it is of course the case that many parts of Africa deal with famine, and drought, political instability, and genocide.
These are not problems that are just, inherent to the way the African continent is, and to assert that they are is to take away responsibility from European colonialism for the horrible realities that many people in Africa have to deal with. I wrote a post a few months ago about the Scramble For Africa:
In 1884, Otto Von Bismark called a meeting of all the major European powers, on how to “fairly” divide up Africa between them. Britain got part of Africa, France got part of Africa, Germany got some of Africa, an entire continent was divided up between the most powerful nations in Europe. This resulted in many horrific examples of peoples being split in half, such as the Maasai, because the way Europe divided up Africa meant that some of the Maasai now lived in German territory, and some of them lived in British territory. It reminds me a lot of how the people of Berlin were torn in two by the Berlin wall.
And the constant violation of the rights of the people of Africa didn’t begin with the Scramble For Africa. That began with the horrific, and disgusting belief that it was right to own African people as property. The African slave trade is one of the most horrific acts of cruelty ever committed by humanity.
So, which seems more likely to you. That Africa is just kind of, not very good, climate wise, or that many, though not all, of the problems faced by Africa can be blamed on centuries of European interference and human rights violations? It’s comforting to just say, “Oh those poor Africans, it never rains there don’t you know” because that means we don’t have to look at the horrors that the West has inflicted on Africa for centuries.
“Where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow” This kind of nonsense completely absolves Europe of basically causing much of Africa to stagnate. Oh, it’s not Europe’s fault, it’s because there’s no rivers in Africa you see!
Am I saying everything would have been fine in Africa if Europe had just left the continent alone? Am I saying there would have been no famine there? Am I saying there would have been no war? Of course not. It is infantilising to the various peoples in Africa to say that before the Europeans came, they lived in a beautiful utopia where everything was perfect. Of course there would still have been problems, just like on all of the other continents. But the over simplistic, and frankly, incredibly silly, lyrics of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” have the effect of exonerating the most powerful countries in the world for making things in Africa a whole lot worse.
I think this kind of viewpoint is part of the reason why the genocide in Sudan is being ignored. There’s this perception that Africa is just, kind of a shit place to live, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about it. But this ignores the part that the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, have played in funding the RSF, the Sudanese paramilitary force that is guilty of genocide. I’ve written about that here:
https://autismneurodiversity.com/2025/10/31/blood-seen-from-space-the-horror-in-sudan-continues/
So this is why I despise songs like “Do They Know It’s Christmas”. It makes no attempt to understand why certain parts of the African continent are suffering, why they there’s famine there, why there’s war there, why there’s genocide there. Why, to do that would be to admit to the complicity of our own countries! We can’t have that! I’m an atheist, so I don’t believe in Santa. But if I’m wrong, and there is a Santa Claus, I’d just like to ask him for one present this year. Please consign patronizing, smug drek like “Do They Know It’s Christmas” to the dustbin of history! Wouldn’t that make for a Merry Christmas!
Ponderings Of An Autist 