BONO - BONO BEGS 'STOP THE CLICHES'

Crusading rocker BONO has launched an impassioned appeal to the world's media to stop "dehumanising" Africa by painting grim pictures of the continent. The U2 singer, who began his 10-day tour of Africa on Tuesday (16MAY06), was speaking from Rwanda, home to one of the worst cases of genocide the world has ever seen in 1994. After talking to survivors of the mass killings and laying flowers at a memorial, he went on to visit a village targetted for UN development aid, where he was greeted by local singing and dancing. He later told assembled press, "The thing I'm learning is breaking with cliches. We see this pattern of Africans displayed as supplicants. We need to start portraying Africans as noble, entrepreneurial, very handsome, beautiful, smart. "Break the cliches. As people dehumanise African people it's very easy to turn away from them." Bono will continue his whistlestop tour by visiting Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana.