SPECIAL REPORT: The corrosive legacy of Live Aid

[duckgirlie]

Like most people of my generation, I can still recall with utmost clarity the moment a bunch of denim-clad rockers strode on to the Wembley stage and struck up a song that never seemed more fitting: Rockin' All Over The World

Comments

[roseofjuly]

This was a really interesting article, thanks for posting. I was immediately struck by this:

To begin with, there was the lack of African artists invited to perform at an event that urged the world not to ignore Africa...And second, by denying African artists a platform, it demonstrated a mindset that the West knows best - that it is our voice that really counts, even when dealing with other people's problems.

And about the fact that a good proportion of Britons don't know that it rains in African or that Timbuktu is a real place...I remember growing up and thinking Timbuktu was a fake place, too (I'm from the U.S.) We just used it as a placeholder for a really far away place. I was surprised to find that out later - and that it was once the seat of a great African empire. This was about the same time that I found out that there even were African empires other than Egypt (which of course was populated by tanned white people). In school we learned a little about the Chinese empire, a little about the Maya and Aztec people, and

[chrys20]

I'm curious do they teach colonisation in British schools? I was under the impression that they didn't, and that it contributes to the poor mindset I've noticed among many Britons. At least here in NL they teach it in secondary school and there is at least some amount of white guilt/the idea that they did bad things in Indonesia.

[acidosaur]

I never got taught about colonisation, and I studied history up to A-level (end of school). History mostly meant learning about WWI & II. I think they should make it a mandatory subject in British education, honestly.

[lucillebluth]

I learnt about decolonisation at A-Level but it was all from the UK's point of view and little about the legacy for the colonies. I do think it was kind of whitewashed, I didn't realise how brutal the British army was in crushing the Mau Mau rebellion even though we learnt about it in class

[decadent_chains]

At my school we did, our coursework from year 9 was "How should the British Empire be remembered?" following on from Niall Ferguson I presume. We looked at India mainly, but I do remember my teacher trying to convince me that Rudyard Kipling's 'White Man's Burden' wasn't racist (it was a source in the textbook we were using) because it was 'reflecting the time'. Yeah, a racist time.