The Invisible Violence of Celebrity Humanitarianism: Soft Images and Hard Words in the Making and Unmaking of Africa

2009

Through their actions to eliminate extreme poverty and preventable diseases in Africa, Irish musicians Robert (Bob) Geldof and Bono (Paul David Hewson) today form a visible and celebrated centre in the world of humanitarianism as ‘political activists,' ‘celebrity diplomats,' ‘global Samaritans,' men who, to quote former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, ‘rock the establishment' (TIME 13.11.2006). Their contemporary calls to ‘make poverty history' in Africa are so widely repeated and commonsensical that questions about the exceptionality of this humanitarian action itself rarely arise. In fact, despite the increasing visibility of celebrity humanitarianism, no research on their representa…

The Gender Politics of Celebrity Humanitarianism in Africa

2011

This article examines Anglo-American news media through a discourse-theoretical framework to study first, how celebrities are constituted as gendered humanitarian subjects acting on behalf of African problems, and second, how the concept of ‘Africa’ is produced, not only as a place, but also as a purpose in the world system. The debate surrounding celebrities is at an impasse, where they are seen as either instrumental or detrimental to African development. To break this standoff, we begin by placing celebrities in their neo-colonial context. We argue that the legitimacy of Bono, Bob Geldof and Angelina Jolie as humanitarian actors is underpinned by particular reproductions of race, class a…

From Street into the World: Towards a Politicised Reading of Celebrity Humanitarianism

2011

Since John Street's article on celebrity politics in 2004, the integral role of celebrities in contemporary humanitarian politics has been increasingly acknowledged in the study of international relations. However, as argued in this article, this research has been limited to analysing appearances rather than examining the aesthetics of celebrity representations and their ‘thought worlds’ that contribute also to the structures, relations and processes of world politics. This article addresses this dearth of critical attention and proposes an approach to engage with celebrity humanitarian imaginaries politically by turning to critical humanitarianism and cultural and post-colonial studies. It…

The global politics of celebrity humanitarianism

2014