Feed the World: Birhan Woldu and Live Aid. Oliver Harvey
malformed by hunger, could have survived. The little girl who had come back from the dead took the microphone as billions watched on television on every continent and in every corner of Earth.
Slowly, in the rich tones of her native Tigrinya language, she said: ‘Hello from Africa. We Africans love you very much. It’s a great honour to be here and stand on the Live 8 stage. We love you very much. Thank you.’ Bisrat translated her words into English as the crowd roared its approval.
They were a few simple words but enough to grab the world’s attention. Her mere presence said more than a multitude of slogans and worthy speeches ever could. Birhan was living proof that aid worked. That the millions who had bought Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ charity record and who had thrown loose change into rattled tins and buckets hadn’t done so in vain. Countless Birhans had been saved thanks to Live Aid and numerous other aid initiatives. This beautiful, intelligent woman was now brimming with potential, her dream to become a nurse, like those who gently cradled her as she lay close to death during Ethiopia’s Great Famine of 1984.
From the giant Hyde Park PA system Geldof’s voice boomed out once again: ‘Don’t let them tell you this stuff doesn’t work. It works – you work – very well indeed.’
As he uttered the words ‘from one immensely strong woman to another’, Madonna bounded on stage. In a crisp figure-hugging white waistcoat and flowing white trousers, she sashayed over to Birhan and kissed her gently on the lips. The Queen of Pop, a diamond-encrusted ‘M’ dangling from her neck, was visibly overcome with emotion. Pausing momentarily to compose herself, her alabaster-white hand clasped Birhan’s sinuous brown arm and raised it skywards. With that gesture the two women acknowledged the triumph of human spirit, the uniting of the First World and the Third.
Madonna carried on clutching Birhan’s hand as she launched into her hit ‘Like a Prayer’.
‘Are you ready, London, to start a revolution? To change history?’ Madonna demanded.
Bisrat, proudly wearing the T-shirt emblazoned with the name of the African Children’s Educational Trust (A-CET) charity that he helps run, danced along, all the time feeling like this was a dream.
As Madonna started her second song, ‘Ray of Light’, Birhan and Bisrat walked back to where I was waiting for them in the stage wings; their elation shone brightly in their faces. Birhan was transfixed as she watched Madonna sing: ‘Faster than the speeding light she’s flying, trying to remember where it all began…’ Bisrat explained that this was a perfect song for his friend. Birhan meant ‘light’ in their language.
My newspaper, The Sun, had flown Birhan almost 6,000 km (3,700 miles) from Ethiopia for the concert. It had been a roller coaster 10 months since she and I had first met. What had started as an interview with Birhan at her Tigray home as part of a series on the 20th anniversary of Ethiopia’s famine had mushroomed into something incredible.
There had been the emotional meeting with then British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Geldof in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. This in turn led to the re-recording of the Band Aid single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ The impetus from the song was a factor in pushing an initially unenthusiastic Geldof to get behind a concert on the anniversary of Live Aid. Since then Birhan, Bisrat and I had become good friends.
As they emerged from the glare of billions, the relief was huge. We hugged in disbelief, our eyes prickling as the tears welled. When Birhan had enthusiastically agreed to appear at the concert she couldn’t possibly have imagined the scale of the occasion. She said she wanted to do it because she knew what it was like to be starving hungry and didn’t want other African children to suffer like she had done. Her composure and grace had been astonishing and humbling. Despite outward appearances, she admitted her heart had been fluttering as she waited backstage with all the pop stars. The devout Ethiopian Orthodox Christian had put herself in the hands of the Lord as she had throughout her tumultuous life. With the eyes of the world on her, she had found strength.
‘I thought of the years of suffering my family and my country had endured,’ Birhan explained. ‘I wanted to show the world we Ethiopians are a proud and strong people. I wanted my father, Woldu, to be proud after all the sacrifices he had made for me.’ Birhan explained that Woldu had always told her that God had spared them from the famine for a reason. ‘I think today was the reason,’ she said solemnly. An elated Geldof, hugging his partner, the French actress Jeanne Marine, added: ‘Birhan’s story is what this whole thing is about.’
If Live Aid was about charity then Live 8 was about justice, the organizers said. The brutal fact was that two decades on from Live Aid 50,000 people – 30,000 in Africa alone – were still dying each day from easily preventable diseases. It was true that Live Aid had raised over US $100 million – by far the most a charity has made in a single event – and had almost doubled that through subsequent sales and merchandizing. It was an astonishing achievement but it didn’t solve Africa’s woes. Band Aid had been a plaster but it didn’t go to the root causes of what had kept Africa hungry and sick.
Geldof had subsequently immersed himself in development theory after Live Aid. He found the aid business was far from simple. He was staggered to learn that Live Aid’s US $100 million was the amount poor nations had to pay back to Western nations in debt repayments every three or four days. For decades, poor countries spent more money repaying old debts than they did on health and education combined. Most of the billions had been accumulated under corrupt regimes during the Cold War and had accrued more and more interest. Trade rules and tariffs and taxes have also kept Africa poor. The apparently generous West was doing very well from the impoverished undeveloped world. A stark statistic quoted in 2005 was that for every US $1 given by rich nations in aid, US $2 was taken back in unfair trade.
The leaders of the G8 club of the wealthiest nations on Earth were due to meet at the luxury Scottish hotel Gleneagles in four days time. Geldof summed up Live 8 by saying that the world had spoken. He had a mandate and the political demands were 100 percent debt cancellation for the world’s poorest nations, fairer trade laws and doubling the levels of aid to US $50 billion a year in return for better governance. He hoped that Birhan had shown the politicians how much the world lost every time a child dies.
The world’s most powerful man had been watching the pop concert. US President George W. Bush later told Geldof in a private meeting: ‘The most moving moment was when Birhan, the child who had appeared at death’s door in a film at the Live Aid concert in 1985, came out.’ Geldof was clear about the importance that Birhan’s show-stealing appearance at Live 8 had on Bush. ‘It clearly reminded him that when politicians negotiate in the rarefied atmosphere of a place like Gleneagles, there are individuals like her who live and die by their decisions.’
Now Birhan joined her friend Rahel to sip fruit cocktails in the backstage hospitality area at Live 8. Later she would allow herself a glass of red wine.
In the VIP zone free lobster and wine were served, but Birhan preferred her new favourite dish, a burger and chips. She had spent the earlier part of the day backstage, unknown and largely ignored by the great and the good. Now she was the centre of a social whirl.
Ex-Manchester United star David Beckham came over to greet Birhan, with his wife Victoria. They posed for pictures with her. Beckham looked positively delighted. ‘I’ve heard about you Birhan and I think it’s wonderful you are here today.’ Bisrat, then a United fan, found it difficult to contain his glee. ‘Thank you Mr David, sir.’ A photograph of that time has pride of place in Bisrat’s home in Mekele even though he has since switched his allegiance to Arsenal.
Then Hollywood star Brad Pitt came over. Bisrat had to explain to Birhan who the blond-haired farenji was. The actor told Birhan that she was ‘a very special person’. Later she would comment that he had very kind eyes. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan strolled past, as did Sir Paul McCartney with wife Heather Mills, capturing the day on a video recorder. They were no more recognizable to Birhan than the other farenjis in the crowd at the front of the stage.
Suddenly Birhan’s eyes widened