Bono: Africa's best spokesperson?

"For most Africans it's a turnoff when Geldof/Bono are used to present a range of African issues," Max Bankole Jarrett, a Liberian living in Ethiopia responded to one story last month.

"It perpetuates everything these guys claim to be speaking out against -- an Africa that is weak and incapable of picking itself up." Whether rich nations should focus less on aid and more on encouraging foreign investment in Africa is a hot topic for debate on the continent right now. And the leaders of the Western countries who must make policy decisions on how they treat the world's poorest people often meet with Geldof and Bono before they do. "Even though Geldof and Bono now talk about investment, they will always be associated with negative images of Africa and that discourages investors and tourists," says David Thomas, a Briton working on private sector development in Ethiopia. "Success stories from new African faces would better promote the continent." I meet these new faces that Thomas is talking about every day. As Africa's economies have grown, they have bred a new generation of educated businesspeople who are questioning whether the model of aid from the West is now helping at all.

Lectures on poverty from Bono and other musically gifted white multi-millionaires don't add much value to the public policy debate.

More radically, some suggest aid should be stopped altogether to help Africans help themselves. Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo has written a book titled Dead Aid, putting her Oxford and Harvard postgraduate qualifications to good work. In it, she argues in favour of a five-year cap on aid, gradually phasing it out during that time.

As the thesis goes, traditional aid delivery in Africa fosters a culture of dependence and economic inactivity. In fairness to this rather harsh-sounding solution, Moyo is not opposed to aid delivery in crisis situations such as famines, natural disasters or the aftermath of war. Such assistance is rendered to developed nations by the international community and naturally should also be given to under-developed states.