Bono: ‘This is a tipping point for Africa’

During their two-day, four-nation trip through Africa, Brian Williams and Bono sat down for an extended interview during a flight from Bamako, Mali, to Accra, Ghana. What follows is a transcript of their conversation, edited for readability.

Brian Williams: A lot of people who watch our broadcast because of our older demographic are coming to you for the first time. How and when did this become apparent to you that you had to focus your attention and give your name to Africa?

Bono: I was telling you how I genuinely see myself as a traveling salesman. I think that's what I do. I sell songs door-to-door on tour. I sell ideas like debt relief, and like all salesmen, I'm a bit of an opportunist and I see Africa as great opportunity.  And I don't just mean this in terms of doing business with Africa for America or Europe, which I do. I mean it's an opportunity for us in the West to show our values, because a lot people are not sure we have any — to  show what we are made of, to see a continent in crisis and demonstrate what we can do. I see it as an opportunity for me to put this ridiculous thing called celebrity to some use. Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it's mad that people like me are listened to — you know, rap stars and movie stars. You know, rather than nurses and farmhands and others. But it is currency. Celebrity is currency, so I wanted to use mine effectively. I think strategically, but the deep need to do it probably comes out of an experience — lots of experiences I had in a magical place called Ethiopia. Ethiopia is where they say the Garden of Eden was. Some even say the ark of the covenant is there. When Solomon came to see the queen of Sheba, the queen of Sheba was Ethiopian. This ancient, ancient country, proud people, noble people.

In the 1980s, the most sort of vicious war broke out and what often happens in a country like that with desertification and tricky agriculture, famine broke out. People watching this remember "We are the World." And now they won't be able to forget the song. It will get stuck in their head. It was another Irishman, Bob Geldof, who put together Live Aid. The original Live Aid back in the ’80s and after that, I went to Ethiopia where this famine was. I was 23, 24 before we started getting interested in what was going on in the wider world. Before, [I was] lost in myself as rock star, trying to make some cool rock music. Spiritually, I was always aware that there was inequality in the world and that we couldn't ignore them if we were to face God. So here comes famine in Ethiopia in 1985. I was very upset by the pictures, like everybody was. You remember that Cars song, "Who's Going to Drive You Home?" And I remember seeing pictures the day we played Live Aid of this child trying to stand to his feet and walk — just to walk —  but the child was so badly stricken by famine, malnourished. The child couldn't walk. And there was this song, "Who's Going to Drive You Home Tonight?" — and it made the whole world cry and I was one of them. I got so caught up in the Live Aid and the "We are the World,” Band Aid, do you know it's Christmas, I decided I needed to see myself rather than just through pictures on the Nightly News. We went to work for months in Ethiopia. We were put in charge of an orphanage and it was an amazing thing. I was known as the girl with the beard. I had long hair and a beard and an earring, I think is what it was. But the sights I saw on that visit deeply just stuck on the back of my retina — waking up in northern Ethiopia and mist leaving the ground and watching people coming, walking all through the night, coming, thousands of them coming to a feeding station to beg for food — to beg for their lives — I knew that this problem was structural. Not just that these people were unfortunate, not just that there was war in their country, but there were deeper problems at the root of Africa's poverty, and I kind of made a mental note to study them and to discover what they were. I came home from Africa, as you will do tomorrow, and I'm going to get on with my life. Lost in being in a band. My family, my friends. Just forget. And it took the Jubilee 2000 movement to wake me up.

Jamie Drummond, he called me up and asked if I would come to work on the "Drop the Debt" campaign, and I said, I'm not as interested in this charity thing. He said this is about justice. This is not about charity. All this aid you gave in Live Aid, you made $250 million — we thought this was amazing. All this "We are the World," we might have made $800 million — an unthinkable amount, but it turns out Africa pays that back to us every month in debt.

Williams: When you say, "One," and when you say, "Red," they're just words to Americans. They mean a lot more to you. What do they mean?

Bono: Well, they're two different approaches to the same problem. Red is a sort of charitable response to the AIDS emergency through red products — red phones — Motorola putting out a red phone, American Express putting out a red card and, GAP doing T-shirts and Armani's involved. And the idea is that some of profits — in fact, a lot of profits made by those items — will go to global fund to fight AIDS.

Now, ONE is a different thing. If RED is a charity, ONE is about justice. ONE is the marching boots inside of what we do. ONE is people in the Midwest like Shane Moore, who's an evangelical soccer mom who is having a watch party for your program tonight — she's unbelievable. Also Green Day, Alicia Keyes. ONE is a big movement of people. It's like the civil rights movement was like in the ’60s, I suppose or the anti-apartheid movement in the ’70s and ’80s — people getting organized. Bill Gates, Tom Brady, NASCAR.

Inevitably, programs like this focus on somebody like me — an easy story to tell. Actually, it's much more and I do want to assure people who are watching this like, "Hey, Honey, there's Bono in Africa again. Everything's going to be all right." Thank God Africa is not dependent on me. The Irish rock star tip of the iceberg with some really exciting stuff happening on the ground, real campaigning. If you sign up with ONE.org, we'll text you every few weeks.

When President Bush's request to increase aid was slashed by the House of Representatives, the Senate got half a million e-mails. That's how people get busy. There's so many people involved in all different sectors of society. Bobby Shriver in L.A. Eunice Shriver, his mother. You know, the sister of JFK, she writes e-mails. It's a broad panoply of characters and influence but you put that together — the soccer moms, student activists, the church vote with corporate America, product RED campaign, now we're on high street, now we're on main street USA, things get interesting.

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