When Michael Jackson first set foot in Africa at the beginning of 1974, he had already established himself as a child prodigy, stealing the limelight from his brothers as the lead singer of the Jackson Five. The Jackson siblings, signed to the legendary Motown label, had recorded a whole string of chart-topping hits since 1968. And when they hit the road on their first international tour their next port of call after Australia and Japan was Senegal where the minute they climbed down from the plane they were greeted by a traditional dance and percussion troupe. The Jackson Five performed three concerts in Dakar (one at Demba Diop Stadium, two at the Daniel-Sorano National Theatre), playing to a frenzied crowd whose screams of adulation confirmed the extent of the world's first black boy band's popularity.

Eleven years later, Jackson was enjoying a phenomenally successful solo career and reaping the rewards of his 1982 album Thriller (which goes down in record history as the best-selling album of all time.) The American star chose to put his fame at the service of a number of causes including USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa), a charity working towards the relief of famine and disease in Africa and dealing with the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia. The American singer Harry Belafonte initiated the project, encouraging Jackson to write a fund-raising song with Lionel Richie. We Are The World, a single recorded in 1985 by an all-star cast of 45 singers and musicians, sold over 7 million copies worldwide and raised over 50 million dollars for the cause.

Jackson's reputation in Africa was temporarily tarnished by the "Manu Dibango Affair" when the renowned Cameroonian saxophonist filed a lawsuit against the American pop star, accusing him of having stolen a hook from Soul Makossa (the hit that broke the African musician onto the U.S. market). Dibango claimed that Jackson's 1983 track Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ ends the chorus with a nonsensical chant close to his famous "mama-say mama-sa ma-ma-coo-sa." After years of legal wrangling, the lawsuit was finally settled out of court but the affair hit the headlines once again in 2009 when Rihanna sampled Jackson (without seeking Dibango's authorisation) on her song Don't Stop the Music.

Jackson returned to Africa in February 1992 on his Come Back To Eden tour. The tour, hosted by Gabon's President Omar Bongo, did not involve a single concert, however, the singer insisting that his priority in Africa was to visit orphanages, children's hospitals and schools. Jackson, the first ever entertainer to receive Gabon's Medal of Honour from President Bongo during the tour, encountered "Michael Jackson" mania at every step along the way. In Ivory Coast, villagers laid on a tribal ceremony and their chief crowned the American star "King of Sanwi" and in Tanzania and Guinea official Michael Jackson postage stamps were printed in his image.

Jackson finally got to perform live on stage in Africa for the first time in 1996, appearing at the El Menzah stadium, in Tunis, in front of a 60,000-strong crowd. In 1997, a few months after heading out to South Africa to meet President Nelson Mandela, the American star performed five concerts in Capetown, Johannesburg and Durban, attracting over 200,000 fans. And it was in South Africa that Jackson's last international tour, the HIStory World Tour, ended twelve years ago now. The King of Pop was to have staged a live comeback at London's O2 Arena in July 2009, but the one-man show that was Michael Jackson's life was cut short before that much-hyped event.