NO-ONE can deny that Bob Geldof is one of the most charismatic characters on the planet. His eyes simply burn with passion. The fact that he's not the best singer in the world was bad news for The Boomtown Rats, but good news for Africa. Bob's crusade to save lives and end extreme poverty demands attention.

Geldof In Africa (BBC1, Monday, 7.30pm) doesn't ignore the political issues facing that continent. But the six-part series is both Bob's personal journey and his way of showing us how we misunderstand the land.

Introducing the first programme, he says: "The first thing you notice is the light. Light everywhere. Brightness everywhere. Not the dark continent, as so often described by writers from the gloomy northern skies of Europe.

"Not the dark continent at all. This is the luminous continent, drenched in sun, pounded by heat and shimmering in its blinding glare."

Made by his own TV production company, the documentaries reveal a giant landscape where David Beckham is a hero and appearances are often deceptive.

"The Masai may not look it to us, but they are, in fact, totally 21st century people, who just want to wear togas and carry spears. The Masai do co-operate with the modern world. They pay taxes when they have to. And when the young warriors go to town, amazingly, they leave their knives and swords with the hat check girls in the bars and discos."

Bob is visibly moved as he walks in "the very cradle of humanity" where man first originated almost three million years ago. It takes a lot to impress him, but he admits: "I'm truly filled with this sense of wonder."

When his taxi to Lagos breaks down, he's made a king by the local town where he finds himself stranded - a colourful event which comprises just 15 seconds of Bob's film. The message is clear. This is about Africa, not him.

Geldof writes his own script, as if anyone else could put words in his mouth. He was obviously inspired by his experience. "The African night is absolute dark. It's a warm, soft, velvet night, a noisy night of busy insects, foraging animals and murmuring humanity. The countryside is still lit mostly by wood fires and oil lamps, the towns by the occasional headlamp and the empty roads by a lone overnight truck."

He tells the story of the slave trade and almost spits his disgust at the "eternal shame" of those who sold - and those who bought. Standing in a teeming market in Accra, the capital of Ghana, he says: "Some comment- ators have suggested that 400 years of terror through slavery have given the Africans an unshakeable fatalism that clouds everything they think and hinders their economic development - I didn't notice.

"Whatever they may or may not be carrying around inside their heads, they're carrying everything else on top of it."

There's much to admire in this revealing series and much to learn, including a simple lesson in economics from Bob, explaining why an African farmer who produces bananas, pineapples, oranges, coconuts, the cola nuts used for the world's best-selling fizzy drink, and coca beans isn't a millionaire living on the French Riviera.

He tells us about the origins of the word jazz, after revealing how thousands of parents still sell their children because of extreme poverty. We get to see how life is actually lived, including the African concept of time. "For us, time is a fixed moment - I'll be there at three. In Africa, the moment you arrive is when you'll be there."

Along the way, Bob encounters some very different hospital treatments, finds out how to buy petrol at the roadside and explores Voodoo, derived from one of the world's oldest religions. "It's a great example of our normal misunderstanding of African thought. We don't get it, so we fear it."

Digging beneath the western view of the continent, he says: "The people of Africa hold themselves together by using the ancient, deep sub-structures of society - the extended family, which becomes the clan, which becomes the tribe. They take care of each other, no matter what the froth of history, politics, the environment or the modern world throws at them. And this is the big, unseen, secret of Africa."



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