Sorry, jimquk. Prior to 1984, the previous major famine in Ethiopia was in 1973 and news of conditions in Ethiopia were not well known until they were documented by Mohammed Amin in 1983. While you have a sense of the spirit of the song, you are wrong about Ethiopia. The song seems to be about starvation in the third world and the presence of western missionaries - hence the ivory Madonna that is white as representative of the religion of the white first world. Rather than bring aid or food, the western world exports its religion.
Sorry, jimquk. Prior to 1984, the previous major famine in Ethiopia was in 1973 and news of conditions in Ethiopia were not well known until they were documented by Mohammed Amin in 1983. While you have a sense of the spirit of the song, you are wrong about Ethiopia. The song seems to be about starvation in the third world and the presence of western missionaries - hence the ivory Madonna that is white as representative of the religion of the white first world. Rather than bring aid or food, the western world exports its religion.