Released back in 1985, a few months after Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, a reggae supergroup got together to record a charity single for Ethiopian famine relief. Formed in 1984 by Leon Leiffer, lead singer of The Blackstones, the British Reggae Artists Famine Appeal Team (BRAFA), included well-known reggae artists such as Aswad, Dennis Brown, Janet Kay, and was recorded at Eddy Grant’s studio. Part of the motivation for the project was frustration due to the lack of African and Caribbean artist representation in Band Aid. Many of the artists had personal roots, and as Rastafarians, there was a religious connection to former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. Even though it could be considered the forgotten charity single in comparison to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and USA for Africa’s “We Are the World”, in 2021, a public square in Hackney, England was named after the collective.
