BBC, Geldof to catalogue all human existence
Geldof, the former frontman for rock group the Boomtown Rats, says he was first inspired to act after hearing about disappearing languages in Africa 20 years ago.
If this venture into what has clearly been sparked off by Geldof’s African obsession turns out to be anything like “Geldof in Africa” then it should be a very well worthwhile project indeed. Granted, this time the aging Irish rocker is biting off an enormous project to chew upon, and one which will take years in the completion, if ever, but Bannerman believes it’s these undertakings by what amount to non-aligned, globally concerned and highly recognisable individuals which stand the best chance of acknowledgement where it counts.
Certainly, unless you happened to watch the little advertised “Geldof in Africa” over the entirety of its six week lifespan, you’d not understand what Bannerman means when he says that even on a television screen, the experience was a hauntingly powerful one. But that it was and due almost entirely to Geldof’s innate form of plain speaking and graphic scenes of what Africa really is to so many of it’s inhabitants today.
If Geldof can do for the Dictionary of Man and The Human Planet what he did for his other productions, then the human cause will be well served.