The Gender Politics of Celebrity Humanitarianism in Africa

Abstract

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 and gender. They are positioned in a heteronormative world political framework in which celebrities recreate Africa and its proper place in the neoliberal international system through a performative perpetuation of historically embedded subjectivities. The analysis then turns to Madonna's Malawian adoption in 2006 as a case that does not entirely ‘fit’ and probes its subversive capacity. The article argues that the adoption controversy made visible the privileged, neo-colonial position from which celebrities, and western humanitarianism broadly speaking, happens, and gives rise to further questions pertaining to Africa's childlike position in the western imaginary.

Keywords:

• celebrity
• development
• gender
• humanitarianism
• neo-colonialism
• neoliberalism
• news media
• race

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous referees, Eira Juntti and other members of the Gender and politics study group at the University of Helsinki, and Anni Haataja for their immensely valuable comments and suggestions.

Notes

All four have broad international circulation: Daily Telegraph: 857,871; TIME EMEA: 526,913 (source: ABC UK Jan–June 2008), TIME US: 3,399,967 (source: ABC US Jan–June 2007); NYT 1,077,256 (source: March 2008 ABC Fas-Fax; NY Times Internal Records).

This does not mean that the actions of the celebrities are universally eulogized. For example, the NYT (5 March 2007) sarcastically described Bono as ‘a rock star with a touch of the messiah complex’. The Telegraph (30 July 2008) reported on a US artist that depicted Jolie was dressed as the Virgin Mary holding her newborn twins and surrounded by the rest her children. While this parodied the people that had made Jolie into a Holy Mother figure, Bono was ridiculed for seeing himself as Jesus, again with implications on gender and agency.