Bono spreads message for African recovery

South Africa’s plan for African recovery, controversial US farm subsidies and the unfairness of having to pay to use a toilet are the new refrains of rock star and humanitarian activist Bono.

The man whose journey to stardom began with anthemic songs about injustice in Northern Ireland is on a four-nation fact-finding tour of Africa with US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill the man who, as Bono puts it, controls the purse strings of one of the world’s richest countries.

Bono’s mission? To create awareness of Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa (DATA) - a non-profit organiation which aims to raise awareness about unpayable debts, the need for foreign development assistance, especially to fight AIDS, and trade rules which are considered unfair and keep Africa poor and marginalised.

Addressing the media in Pretoria, South Africa, he said: "I’m extremely fond of this continent. I believe it is the continent of the future and I believe the 21st century is the African century. I just don’t want it to take until the end of the century to get it right."

South Africa’s Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and O’Neill sat at the formal table that the protocol department has set up. But all attention was focused on the man in black pants and a t-shirt casually leaning against the wall of South Africa’s treasury building. Manuel, watching the cameras whirr away at the pop star, quipped: "Hello, I’m the guy who works here."

DATA is not specifically advocating increased development assistance for South Africa, other than arguing for increased resources for Global Health, through USAID and the Global Fund for AIDS TB and Malaria, for which South Africa is eligible," a statement released ahead of the trip said.

"My job is to interface people who don’t speak to each other," Bono said.

"It was very daring and bold of him (O’Neill) to have me on his plane - I’m very messy - but I’ve really enjoyed our debates over the last few days. He is in charge of America’s wallet and it is true that I want him to open that wallet. I’m not looking for small change, I’m looking for the big change in the relationship between Europe and Africa," he said.

O’Neill said of his trip: "I’ve been trying to gather facts about life on the ground. I’ve been looking at people whose water source comes from heaven when it does come. I want to know what we can do quickly rather than getting into ethical debates...I do know that people should not have to live without clean water.

"We went to a 380-bed hospital where they don’t have clean water. A village with 4,000 people in thatch huts whose water looks like it is from a washing machine. We found that 50 percent of the people don’t have water and that a fraction of children are dying of diseases like cholera which have been eradicated throughout the world. We calculate that we can drill a well for US $5,000 and think what can we do about it and what can we do about it very quickly," O'Neill added.

Bono, however questioned the US' recently passed Farm Bill which will subsidise US farming saying: "it is at odds with its own position on Africa," referring to the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

He said he was horrified to find subsidised US-grown rice on a market in Ghana saying the country's own rice market was stifled by cheap imports.

"It is duplicitous and unacceptable. We’ve got to have level playing fields, it’s just the wrong message. People want to do something about debt relief and aid but they’ll sponsor the Farm Bill," Bono noted.

Bono said he supported the plan for Africa's recovery - the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) - calling it "the most important idea we have heard in years."

However, he cautioned: "It has to include civil society, it must be owned by the people, not just the government."

Later, when asked to relate the most poignant moment on his trip he told IRIN: "Learning that people have to pay to take a crap. It is an affront to human dignity to have to pay to defecate or to do it in public and people were forced to do this, even in sewers. That shocked me."