The role of celebrities promoting charities in Africa has come under fire after a British politician accused a television presenter filmed in Uganda of being a \u201cwhite savior\u201d promoting colonial ideas of Africans being \u201chelpless victims\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British charity Comic Relief, which enlists celebrities to help raise funds for the world\u2019s poorest communities, faced harsh criticism from opposition Labor lawmaker David Lammy after presenter Stacey Dooley was filmed holding a black child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lammy, who is of Guyanese descent, said online photos of Dooley, who will feature in a BBC documentary later this month about her trip to Uganda, evoked negative stereotypes about Africa and its reliance on Western white people for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dooley, 31, is one in a long list of British celebrities – from Oscar-winning actress Olivia Coleman, singer Ed Sheeran, to Olympic champion Mo Farah – to be engaged by aid groups to champion their causes and attract donors by helping to raise public awareness of issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cComic Relief should be helping to establish an image of African people as equals to be respected rather than helpless victims to be pitied,\u201d Lammy posted on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world does not need any more white saviors. As I\u2019ve said before, this just perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes. Let\u2019s instead promote voices from across the continent of Africa and have serious debate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comic Relief, which raised nearly 80 million pounds ($106 million) in 2017 from its Red Nose Day appeal, said it made \u201cno apologies\u201d for its decision to feature Dooley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are really grateful that Stacey Dooley … agreed to go to Uganda to discover more about projects the British people have generously funded there and make no apologies for this,\u201d the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn her film, people working with or supported by Comic Relief projects tell their own stories in their own words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, Comic Relief pledged it would use local heroes rather than celebrities in clips from Africa after it was slammed for featuring singer Ed Sheeran in a 2017 video with street children in Liberia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dooley, a documentary filmmaker who rose to fame when she featured in a 2008 reality show about the impact of fast fashion in India, questioned why her race was a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDavid, is the issue with me being white? (Genuine question) Because if that\u2019s the case, you could always go over there and try raise awareness?\u201d Dooley posted on Twitter in response to Lammy\u2019s criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI saw projects that were saving lives with the money. Kids lives,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The controversy has caused heated online debates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some have argued it was offensive to exclude white people who genuinely want to help people in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others argued it perpetuated the idea that Africa needed white people to save them from poverty or disease, and promoted Western celebrities over local unsung heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are levels to the white savior complex. You can mean well, do some good along the way and actively be perpetuating the (white savior complex),\u201d said Uganda-based campaign group No White Saviors.Brie Larson blasts off as Marvel’s first leading lady<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost of you are not intentionally causing harm but once you are presented with these unintended consequences, you are responsible to do better,\u201d the group posted on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The practice of using celebrities drew criticism last January from the outgoing head of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the non-profit sector\u2019s watchdog, who urged agencies to stop chasing stars and focus instead on the people they were set up to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The role of celebrities promoting charities in Africa has come under fire after a British politician accused a television presenter filmed in Uganda of being a \u201cwhite savior\u201d promoting colonial ideas of Africans being \u201chelpless victims\u201d. British charity Comic Relief, which enlists celebrities to help raise funds for the world\u2019s poorest communities, faced harsh criticism from opposition Labor lawmaker David… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3299,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions\/3299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}