It is perhaps a reflection of the ever-increasing speed of the modern news that the backlash to the Live8 concerts has come before the events themselves - but come it has, write Simon Jeffery and Sarah Left.
In truth it has been building for some time. DJ Andy Kershaw said at the weekend that the heavily white line-ups would do nothing for "Africa's self-esteem". Taking on that line, a piece by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in Monday's Independent (subscription required) said the appearance of the Devon teenager Joss Stone over "Congolese groups that sell across Europe" was evidence of a "colonial mindset [that] means Africans are only seen in the west as villains or victims".
The latest attack – and also the highest profile, if only because it happened on the revered Today programme – was the Blur singer Damon Albarn's accusation that the ethnic makeup of the London show ("so damn Anglo-Saxon") treated Africa "like it's a failing, ill, sick, tired place".
The criticisms of the line-up are valid. For whatever reason, the organisers did not appear to have made a huge effort to include black musicians. Jamelia's spokesman said the pregnant singer (who performed at the Make Poverty History rally starring Nelson Mandela) would play some part if approached, and the billing of Ms Dynamite and Snoop Dogg, who will now both play in Hyde Park, looks as though it could be an attempt to calm the criticisms down.
And frankly, a concert in Africa - now reportedly being arranged - would go a long way to letting Africans show support for the project. Crowds of cheering, dancing African young people packed into a concert in Abuja or Dar es Salaam or Dakar, then splashed across huge screens in Hyde Park and Philadelphia and Paris, would build solidarity and put the G8 leaders on notice: Africa is watching you, too.
Still, while Albarn no doubt has the best of motives (he is an enthusiast for African music, as his Mali Music project demonstrated, and he has worked with Oxfam in the continent) he, and Alibhai-Brown, appear to be missing the point somewhat.
The idea behind Live 8 is not to change perceptions of Africa – it is to create a populist upsurge in the west ahead of the G8 summit the British government hopes to use to deliver aid and debt relief to boost African development.
You can argue about whether the ends justify the means, but – in essence – to suggest Africa was doing just fine would undermine the drive behind the 2005 campaign. That does not mean more black musicians should not be on the London line up - it is not as if there are no popular and successful black musicians in Britain - but Live 8 hardly appears to be a conspiracy against Africa in the manner that some commentators suggest.
