Are celebrity academies in Africa public relations machineries?

When television icon and business leader Oprah Winfrey opened a girl’s academy in South Africa in 2007, many dismissed the idea as a publicity stunt.

Last year, the Johannesburg based school held its first graduation and one hundred per cent of its graduates were accepted to colleges including top schools in the US and South Africa.

Several of those graduates received full scholarships to top it all. The girls produced 188 matriculation distinctions in their Senior National Certificate examinations.

Educating girls is a profitable investment for any developing country as this goes a long way in creating changes in various communities.

However, this has not been a smooth road for the school, at some point the institution was reportedly plagued with sex scandal allegations, claims Winfrey refuted as incorrect. At one point, a UK newspaper Daily Telegraph had reported that students at the institution, “preyed” on a schoolmate, and six others are “alleged to have touched each other intimately.”

A Dorm matron was also accused of abusing the girls, she was later dismissed.

In as much as many voices criticized Oprah for going to Africa to set an institution, she surged ahead, used her wealth and accorded the girls opportunity to get education to enable them succeed and in turn better their country. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls was founded five years ago to turn a handful of impoverished girls into elite leaders, in Henley-on-Klip, Johannesburg on January 14, 2012. Founded in 2007 with $40 million from Winfrey.

These girls were in great need and the academy was their beacon of hope.

In as much as her efforts have been met by wild allegations, Oprah seemed passionate about education coming from a background of suffering as a young girl, the school seem to be weathering the stormy sea with their visions fixed ashore.

Debt cancellation

Oprah’s gesture reminds me of an Irish singer called Bob Geldof who saw Ethiopian children starving, and was driven to tears. He later founded band Aid, and brought in the celebrity crowd who raised millions of dollars to feed the starving population.

Later came other notable celebrity, Bono of U2, and his grand campaign against Third World debt to rich countries and International Monetary Fund. As Times magazine put it, he is busy convincing rich countries that saving Africa from financial ruin is in their best interest.

Bono argues that wiping $350 billion from their books, African nations would be free to spend more on health care and education, rather than pay down the principal on loans procured by corrupt and sometimes long-gone governments, he argues. A worthy cause, many would nod in agreement.

World tennis champion Serena Williams have also followed into Oprah’s footsteps and opened two secondary schools in eastern parts of Kenya in 2008 and 2010 respectively. Those are Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni and Wee Secondary School in Makueni. The institutions were built through partnership between the Build African Schools initiative and Hewlett Packard.

Her move was informed by the plight of the children from that region and since they were many, she thought giving them education would be the best way to lift them from poverty.

Some very bright children in Africa are hindered from achieving their dreams since they cannot afford education and Serena has also shown some genuine humanitarian concern to reach out to the needy.

Adopt 'poor' children

Now, other celebrities are pouring into the continent in hordes, not with the sophisticated message of debt cancellation or debt relief or education like Oprah but with something different. The latest fad is to adopt ‘poor’ children. Starting with American pop idol Madonna, who is ‘fond’ of Malawian babies, others have followed the suit.
Madonna made another trip to adopt another ‘poor’ African baby Mercy Chifundo James at the time when she had just divorced her star husband Guy Ritchie. She was however given green lights by Malawi Government to adopt, an indication of how laws can be bended where fame and money are involved.

On the same year, she announced she was going to build an elite academy for poor girls which was such a sweet music in a country where only 33 per cent of girls attend secondary school.

Some Malawians were treated were thrown out of their homes to create room for the Elite Academy that never was. Farmers from nine villages in Chinkhota which is about 15 kilometers from the capital Lilongwe were controversially displaced from their lands to accommodate the musician’s new flagship project of ‘future leaders for Malawi”.

However, after displacing villagers and making government spend on title deeds on the 117 acre of land, Madonna abandoned the project; she now says she will build 10 schools in rural areas.

Dramatic lifestyles

Moreover, if you thought adoption stopped with Madonna then you need to think twice for movie star Angelina Jolie is also into this business- she has Ethiopian baby under her custody. About two years ago, South African music icon Yvonne Chakachaka, who is the UNICEF Special Ambassador on Malaria also promised to adopt a Malawian teenager.

It is doubtful whether these ‘super stars’ who adopt African children have put much thought into the cultural dilemmas and adjustments the adopted children are forced to go through.
Should these children be uprooted from their family set-ups or aren't they better off supported while they remain where they were? Are these celebrities necessarily good parents? Are their often-dramatic lifestyles helpful to the adopted children?

Building a school or a home for those children like Oprah Winfrey did in South Africa or Serena Williams did in Kenya could be more beneficial to the children and to the larger community than handpicking a few African babies then sitting back to bask in glory and fame’ to highlight their concerns against poverty’.

In view of the above, Oprah and Serena are doing Africa proud by offering education to many as opposed to other foreign celebrities who think adoption is ideal solution to the often impossible circumstances confronting many needy children across the continent.

ajotieno@ke.nationmedia.com