Dictators and Pop Stars

A number of North American pop artists have lent their star power to African dictators.

Jay Z and Pascaline Bongo throwing up the Roc in Gabon.

Yesterday Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado tweeted that she had performed privately for Gaddafi’s family and had earned US$1 million, but was now feeling so bad that she would donate the money she earned to “an undisclosed charity.” Anyway, her sudden development of a consciousness, made us think about all those other American artists who have lent their star power to African dictators.

In the last week, mainstream media (and blogs) have reminded us that 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Usher, and Beyoncé have also performed privately for Gaddafi’s family in the past. When reps for Carey, Usher, and Beyoncé were asked by Rolling Stone Magazine to comment on the shows, they either declined to comment or did not return phone calls.

South of the Sahara, Jay-Z has been photographed (above) representing Roc-A-Fella with Pascaline Bongo, daughter of the late Omar Bongo from Gabon. The latter ruled that country for 42 years while crushing any opposition and managing the country’s budget like it was his family’s bank account; The crimes of Omar Bongo’s regime included murder and torture of political opponents.

Pascaline Bongo served in various capacities in her father’s government. In 2009 her brother, Ali Ben, won an election marred by irregularities. Ali Ben appointed Pascaline as a senior presidential aide. The country has been the scene of protests the last few weeks.

Bongo’s daughter-in-law also rented a house in Los Angeles from Puff Daddy.

Separetly, rapper Eve spent a fair amount of time dating Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Equitorial Guinea’s questionable leader. Like his father, Eve’s ex was/is also under suspicion of corruption. Then there’s Akon’s endorsement of Senegal’s unpopular president, Abdoulaye Wade.

We could go on and on citing links between dictators and pop stars. Who is today “Artists United Against Apartheid” that shamed musicians who played Sun City in South Africa? Let’s get Steven Van Zandt to rally again. Or just blog about it.

Further Reading

The battle over the frame

As Hollywood recycles pro-war propaganda for Gen Z, Youssef Chahine’s ‘Djamila, the Algerian’ reminds us that anti-colonial cinema once turned imperial film language against its makers—and still can.

Fictions of freedom

K. Sello Duiker’s ‘The Quiet Violence of Dreams’ still haunts Cape Town, a city whose beauty masks its brutal exclusions. Two decades later, in the shadow of Amazon’s new development, its truths are more urgent than ever.

When things fall apart

Against a backdrop of global collapse, one exhibition used Chinua Achebe’s classic to hold space for voices from the Global South—and asked who gets to imagine the future.

The General sleeps

As former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari’s death is mourned with official reverence, a generation remembers the eight years that drove them out.

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.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.