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Singer wants help for Africa's AIDS fight

NEW YORK - India.Arie is hoping viewers will be moved to action after watching VH1's upcoming documentary, Tracking the Monster, in which she and actor Ashley Judd visit separate African countries grappling with the plight of AIDS.

"It's what the power of this piece is, because I intellectually heard the numbers and knew that Africa was being devastated, but when you see it, you only need to see a portion of it and then multiply it in your mind," the singer said after a private screening of the film last week. "Seeing it just made it much more real."

While Judd visited the island of Madagascar and talked with women in prostitution about safe sex, India.Arie went to poverty-stricken sections of Kenya and met with people infected with AIDS or the HIV-virus and comforted children orphaned by the disease.

In one heartbreaking scene, India.Arie asks a 14-year-old girl if she could have anything in the world, what would she want. The girl, an orphan, tells the singer she wants to come home with her, and bursts into tears.

"She was the same age as my sister," the 29-year-old said. "I was not only feeling for her but also feeling that there were millions of girls like her. I can't take home a million girls, I can't take home one. What would I do with a teenage daughter? ... It's a profound conflict, because I really could bring her home but I couldn't."

The singer says she's frustrated the continent hasn't received more help in its fight against AIDS: "It's not fair to me. It's not fair that people ignore AIDS in Africa because it's Africa. It's not fair. If it was Eastern Europe or the lighter the ethnic group, I think the more help they would get."

The experience inspired India.Arie to write songs about her experience. Some of them will be featured on her new dual-album project; one album will be released in the fall and another a few months later.

India.Arie thinks the new material may lead people to criticize her for being too idealistic, but she doesn't care.

"I've given up the whole fear of being called earnest because I am earnest and my music is earnest at times, and that's okay," she said. "The songs that I've written about Africa, and AIDS and HIV and about the power of humanitarian love, those songs, I'm going to sing them because I know that it's real."

[Last modified August 22, 2005, 01:07:12]