Charity campaigns are using outdated representations of Africa, says new paper

In a new paper, Dr. Edward Ademolu and Jess Crombie from University of the Arts London investigate the ethical complexities of international non-government organizations (INGO) representations. The research focuses specifically on how visual storytelling impacts African diasporic communities and those featured in fundraising campaigns.

Their work explores how INGOs can empower disenfranchised communities, prioritize their voices in shaping how they are represented, and inspire a more accountable approach—and whether these changes can happen in practice.

“Our paper critiques reductive narratives, such as those depicted in Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ single, and advocates for shifting power dynamics to center the voices of marginalized communities. These themes align with the critical discussions of outdated portrayals and the need for more inclusive representations,” says Ademolu.

The findings are published in the journal Development in Practice.

A new chorus for Africa

As “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”is re-released to celebrate its 40th anniversary on 25 November, many argue that the song’s approach captures a Western sentimentality that hasn’t aged well. In the four decades since, Ademolu suggests not much has changed in the way that many development communications depict Africa as in need of rescue.

“The critique is not about rejecting the charitable impulse, but rather the narrative it carries—one that, like those teased mullets, feels embarrassingly outdated and disconnected from the reality of a vibrant, multifaceted Africa. They signal a broader shift in consciousness: a growing discomfort with narratives that foreground Western heroes while reducing Africa and the Global South more generally, to an auditorium for their benevolence,” says Ademolu.

Ademolu’s paper interrogates how the portrayal of a starving, helpless Africa—such as the one embodied in Band Aid’s chorus—not only influences Western perceptions, but also impacts how African heritage communities in the U.K. understand themselves.

These representations cultivate a dissonance between pride in African heritage and the discomfort of seeing African identity reduced to charitable narratives for Western consumption, causing a distortion of the sense of self.

“This theme has emerged time and again in my interviews and focus group discussions with British Africans, highlighting a deep, often unspoken, struggle with the ways in which their identity is framed by these reductive portrayals,” says Ademolu.

While some INGOs are moving towards more ethical and reflexive communications, acknowledging the need for complexity and context in their portrayals of the Global South, the transition is uneven. The same tensions that are associated with Band Aid remain, as fundraising campaigns seek to inspire Western empathy without relinquishing control over the narrative.

“The question isn’t whether aid is necessary, but how it can be delivered without compromising the dignity of those it serves. Can we craft melodies about Africa that don’t require a validation check on whether, in 2024, it still knows it’s Christmas? And if so, how might this sound? Perhaps it’s time to abandon the broken record and start anew—a fresh tune where Africa isn’t just a subject, but a co-author, harmonizing its own story,” says Ademolu.