Africa Is a Country

“Keep Africa Alive,” Continued

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

“Keep Africa Alive,” Continued

By
Sonja Sugira

The campaign is accompanied by print ads featuring celebrities in coffins to represent their digital deaths. Can this stop, please?

The Keep a Child Alive campaign features celebrities photographed in a coffin.

Today is World AIDS Day, which means you can expect the gatekeepers of Team: Save Africa to be in exceptionally fine form. In years past, Bono and (RED) have reigned supreme but this year brings a new contender in the form of Alicia Keys and her charity, Keep A Child Alive (KCA). Founded in 2003 by Leigh Blake, KCA has mostly wallowed in obscurity, only able to sit and watch as (RED) cornered the market. Not that KCA hasn’t tried. Who can forget their first attempt at grabbing the spotlight, 2006’s “I Am African” campaign?

The KCA folk has threatened to not tweet for a day. “The world’s top celebrity tweeters are sacrificing their digital lives to give real life to millions of people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.” The campaign is accompanied by print ads featuring the celebrities in coffins to represent their digital deaths. They include Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Usher and Elijah Wood.

I would file this latest stunt under the same banner but I can barely conjure up an eye roll, much less proper indignation. Better luck next year. Watch.

Further Reading

On Safari

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When things fall apart

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The grift tank

In Washington’s think tank ecosystem, Africa is treated as a low-stakes arena where performance substitutes for knowledge. The result: unqualified actors shaping policy on behalf of militarists, lobbyists, and frauds.

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.