Combs raps AIDS ignorance
"I don't think you see enough of this story in your face," an indignant Combs told reporters in Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday. "There are millions and millions of people that are dying and a lot of it is...because it's Africans, it's black people that are dying at this high rate."
Combs and Keys starred in MTV's Staying Alive Concert in Cape Town on Saturday night, on a bill which also featured American R&B artist Usher and top South African acts Mandoza and Zola.
The concert will be broadcast on MTV globally as a 90-minute special for World AIDS Day, December 1.
About 20,000 fans braved unseasonably cold weather to attend the open air show at Cape Town's Greenpoint stadium, but its anti-AIDS message appeared to have been lost on the young audience.
A plea by South Africa's revered former President Nelson Mandela for the youth to practice safe sex was inaudible above the noise of the cheering crowd, and messages flashed on the stadium's giant screens warning that AIDS was fatal attracted little interest.
"Most people here are into the music," said 19-year-old psychology student Ndafu Amadluva. "You don't really think about AIDS you don't think it can happen to you."
Keys and Combs have spent several days in South Africa, visiting AIDS projects, and said they were shocked at the extent of the AIDS problem.
"Once you know about it, you are almost an accessory to the genocide...if you don't do anything about it," said Combs, 33, who was formerly known as Puff Daddy.
An estimated 4.7 million South Africans about 11% of the population are HIV positive, one of the world's highest infection rates. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Paul G Allen Foundation, Saturday's concert aimed at helping fight the stigma and discrimination that surrounds AIDS. Organisers hoped the message of prevention would help young people make informed decisions.
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