One of the continent’s premier music icons, Akon, was this week in Kigali to drum up support for his energy project; Akon Lighting Africa. It is an ambitious undertaking that seeks to connect hundreds of millions of African households with electricity using the continent’s most abundant resource; the sun. Harnessing the sun to supply African homes will definitely not come free, it is a business venture for the principals, but it comes close to philanthropy because Akon and co. will be taking up what in normal circumstances should be nations’ duty. Philanthropy has long been considered the realm of the super rich who dole out a fraction of their wealth to pet projects as a means of giving back to society or PR gimmicks. International philanthropy gained fame four decades ago spurred by music super stars Bob Geldof’s Band Aid and Michael Jackson’s We are the World campaign to counter the famine on the Horn of Africa. Yet, while those campaigns contributed in alleviating the suffering, they were tainted. Most of the money ended up in media campaigns and paying the bills of international NGOs dispensing the aid, little went to food. But, above all, they toyed with the beneficiaries’ dignity in the patronising manner they portrayed the so-called Third World; perennial paupers. Rwanda has no super rich to rival Akon, possibly; but it is a country of philanthropists, from the person who ekes out a living tilling land, to the civil servant who depends on his monthly cheque. They have come out in full support of the government’s many projects, especially when threatened by neo-colonial string-pulling that challenged their dignity. They have dug deep into their shallow pockets to give life to campaigns such as Agaciro (dignity) Fund, and lately, “Ishema Ryacu” because they have learnt the bitter lesson: Charity Begins At Home. Similarly, through his Africa electricity initiative, Senegalese-American singer Akon is proving that old adage right.
