Akon was in Harare recently. The event of the year in a town where not that much usually happens. So half of Harare showed up to see Akon perform. Akon gave a teary speech about how he had spent a miserable childhood in the slums and now wanted to give something back to Africa (by selling expensive tickets to his concert). The real highlight of the concert was, however, seeing Akon crowd surfing in a huge plastic ball. As you may already have guessed the attempt failed miserably. The problem was that the audience was so excited of having Akon in a plastic ball in their very own hands that they refused to pass it on to others. At one point the plastic ball with Akon inside disappeared into the crowds. Everything went silent until Akon irritatingly screamed from inside the ball ”Get off of me! Get me out of here!” In the end thirty body guards were needed to drag the plastic ball with Akon inside from the hands of the enthusiastic crowds back unto stage. If that wasn’t bad enough, Akon decided to do the exercise one more time. He slowly explained the intention of the exercise as if describing a game to a five year old. The same thing happened again.
Akon's visit raises questions about the importance of good will ambassadors and other celebrities who strive to contribute to development efforts. Are they really promoting change or simply easing their own bad conscience about the state of the world?
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