This year people are focusing their attention on Africa. We've had the Blair Africa Commission. We've had all this attention from the Geldofs of the world on Africa. People look at organisations like Oxfams, Boxfams, Doxfams, all these charitable organisations, people like Comic Relief etc. and they put a great deal of attention on Africa. But actually is this the kind of attention that we want?
And I would actually quite like to challenge that view. Because if you actually look at the way in which they are portraying us. And let me get this right, I don't want to question their motives. They might be very well motivated about Africa. They may well want to help us. But what they do is that in order to raise money for their projects, for what they want to do, not for what we want to do, for what they want to do, they portray us in pornographic images.
They portray us in humiliating forms. People who have nothing but pity, that they deserve. But it's not pity we need. That's not what Africa is about. Africa is a place of really heroic fighters. There are people there who are engaged in struggles. It is they who are changing the world. It'll be they who change and transform Africa. It won't be the charitable activities of the Northern agencies. Or of the Live-8s. All those things do is raise money for themselves. I think it's time that people in this country (UK) really looked at saying what do we want to do?
Do we want to act in solidarity with those who are seeking to transform their own world in Africa or do they want to humiliate us? Look at the disability lobby here. Ten years ago you could make films about them being all unable to do this and unable to do that. Lots of pitiful images. They've now organised, they've said “No way are you going to be allowed to portray us in that way