Africa Works

Benetton supports and promotes Africa for Africans. In partnership with Youssou N’Dour.

Benetton puts the spotlight on entrepreneurial Africa. Its global communication campaign for 2008 promotes the Birima micro-credit program in Senegal, a co-operative credit society founded by the Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour. The programmer will also receive financial support from Benetton Group.

Africa Works – the slogan of the campaign developed by Fabrica – will appear on billboards and in the press throughout the world, from February 2008. It features Senegalese workers who have used micro loans to start small, productive businesses. Photographer James Mollison portrays them with the tools of their trade against a neutral background. They include, amongst others, a fisherman, a decorator, a musician, a jewellery-maker, a farmer, a tailor, two textile sellers and a boxer.
These everyday people become tangible symbols of an Africa that uses the dignity of work to fight poverty, promote equitable development, maximise its resources and take back responsibility for creating its future.
A Benetton website devoted to the campaign and its related events and the www.birima.org portal. The Africa Works campaign will also be on stage during the Senegalese singer’s world tour, in particular during his concert at Paris Bercy on 5 April 2008.
Apart from being the title of one of the singer’s international successes, Birima is the name of a legendary king of Senegal who, speaking to his people only once a year, became a symbol of the value of keeping one’s word, of a moral code reflected in the credit society’s key tenet: those who ask for a loan need offer no other security than their word and the good name of their family.
From Senegal, Birima’s style of advanced credit will be gradually exported to other African nations.
For more information:
www.benetton.com/africaworks-press
www.birima.org