The Bono-edited July 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, dubbed the “Africa issue”, has hit stands. What an issue this is. With 20 covers photographed by Vanity Fair’s go-to photographer, Annie Leibovitz , and insight on Africa from EVERYONE from Jay-Z, Iman, Djimon Hounsou, Desmond Tutu, Chris Rock, Madonna, Barack Obama, and Queen Rania of Jordan among others, this issue is a great effort on the part of Vanity Fair. Get a copy, read the articles, and let me know your views. Props to YG for the heads up and images.
As you read this—historic—issue of Vanity Fair, the Global Fund is benefiting, but that’s not the main reason we kidnapped this publication’s extraordinary photographers and storytellers. We needed help in describing the continent of Africa as an opportunity, as an adventure, not a burden. Our habit—and we have to kick it—is to reduce this mesmerizing, entrepreneurial, dynamic continent of 53 diverse countries to a hopeless deathbed of war, disease, and corruption. Binyavanga Wainaina’s piece on Kenya is an eye- and mind-opener. From here, what’s needed is a leg up, not a handout. Targeted debt cancellation and aid mean 20 million more African kids are in school, 1.3 million Africans are on lifesaving drugs. Amazing. -from Bono’s guest editor’s letter