There is an article in today’s Guardian about the forthcoming “Live 8” concerts. Apparently Bob Geldof has been accused of being “deeply patronising” by leaving African musicians out of the shows.

It is true that the line-ups of all the shows is predominantly white and almost entirely from G8-type nations. Even the Italian, French and German concerts will have a lot of American and British acts and few native artists. (And they will mostly only be the ones who have acheived some level of recognition in Britain and/or the US)

Why is this? Geldof’s spokesman says that “Bob had just three weeks to put it all together, and he went to his address book and rang the people that he knew” That sounds plausible and reasonable, until you think about it. Saint Bob has spent the last 20 years talking about the problems in Africa and visiting Africa: did he not meet any Africans while he was doing that? I can’t believe he acted like a typical British ex-pat and only mixed with his own kind while abroad. Did he meet with African musicians but decide they were not worth putting in his address book? I don’t want to believe that.

The real reason could be that Bob wanted to put together a show with the biggest big names possible on the bill, but why should that matter? The public are generally attracted to festivals with a few big names, a few medium names and a lot of obscure names. Glastonbury has no trouble selling out with only a couple of mega-acts on the bill, and surely one of the pleasures is in discovering something new to you? Sure, put REM or U2 on there so everyone knows there is something familiar to enjoy, but throw in Rachid Taha or Angelique Kidjo or Daara J for the crowd to discover as well.

Even at the original Live Aid and Band Aid there were very few black faces. The Americans were a lot more inclusive than us on that score. Its the same this time round, although the Philadelphia show only appears to feature American black faces and not African ones.

There is a lot of talk about globalisation with the G8 talks getting closer, but I think that globalisation is a word that can have two opposite meanings like ‘cleave’ does. There is the ‘bad globalisation’ where the interests of a dominant nation or culture gradually take over the rest of the world, leading to a homogenisation across the planet (a MacDonalds and Starbucks in every city) but surely there is such a thing as ‘good globalisation’ too. This would be like Fairtrade where a product reaches my kitchen without all the all the benefit and profit staying in Britain, or where examples of other cultures can come here and be enjoyed by me either ‘neat’ or in some sort of fusion.

Crawley is quite good in this respect. Most community and civic events feature some indian dancing or sikh drumming or Irish Dancing (Actually everything features Irish Dancing. I think its a bylaw). but we are also starting to see asian rappers now as well. The town’s mela festival is a great showcase for that sort of thing.

But back to Live 8. Why is it that Crawley’s civic ball has more multiculturalism than a high-profile concert to promote awareness of third-world poverty? Maybe the organisers really do not know how good some so-called world music is, and how popular it is becoming these days. Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Rachid Taha and Femi Kuti regularly sell out concerts in London, and the majority of the audience are not Beninoise, Algerian, Senegalese or Nigerian ex-pats wanting a taste of home. Their music is actually very accessible to the British ear and the only reason more people do not like it is that they have never heard it.

Chris Blackwell (founder of Island Records)asked the organisers “Why wasn’t Baaba Maal included?” That is a fantastic question. Not only do all the general points apply, but in his case there are other factors too. He is, I believe a UN special ambassador and does a lot of work educating his people. Although he tours and sells CDs in Europe and the US at full price, when he gets back home he will still play for free, adapting the music as well as the commercial model to suit the environment. He is is actively building bridges.

The problem is that bridges are built a lot faster if they are built from both ends and meet in the middle. Live 8 is Bob Geldof’s chance to start building that bridge from our end, and he seems to have blown it.

Let’s be clear, I am not accusing Geldof of racism – when he grew up there was still a lot of blatant anti-Irish racism over here which he must have experienced. If anything it could be a case of cultural imperialism, or being too focused on the economic aspect of Africa’s problems, but while Africa is economically opressed it is also culturally repressed and it is so ironic that efforts to alleviate the economic oppression do so by reinforcing the cultural oppression.

It is further ironic, that if we in Europe and the US bought more African music that would result in a lot more money flowing back to Africa (assuming the record companies didn’t rip them off too much.) Many of the African artists who have already had some success here have ploughed large chunks of their income into health or education projects back home.

All I can suggest is that we all go out and buy the excellent DVD of Baaba Maal at the Royal Festival Hall, then when Live 8 is on the TV we can pop the disc in and watch it when Annie bloody Lennox hits the stage!