White, rich and traveling in Africa: how do you escape the white savior syndrome?
Article Moonatic Agency
In this article is written for Charlie’s Travels.
It could be a juicy scene from a Ugandan version of The Little House on the Prairie. Dressed in handmade African print pants, I’m plucking the strings of my ukulele in the shade of a mango tree. Black girls with short heads and dresses full of tears are gathered around me. With wide-eyed admiration, they look at my fiddling on the strings, and then try to imitate it on about five other ukuleles that I donated to the children.
It’s my last lesson today, and I’ve brought something for the girls. They are key rings with Dutch wooden shoes. I take the small gifts from my bag and start handing them out. The children laugh, hold up their hands and hug my legs. They are happy, and I feel good. I pat myself on the back in my thoughts. This adventure has ended for me; time to go back home!
You are white, rich, educated and traveling in Africa. The charity commercials on television have prepared you for the poverty and hunger you would face on your trip. I myself have been living for a while in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. When I recently scrolled through Facebook, I ended up on this Facebook group called ‘Dutch people in Uganda’. A lady asked the other Dutch expats and travelers “what I can bring to hand out to the children?” The question makes sense, because we – as wealthy Westerners on a privileged pedestal – have the responsibility to give something back… Right? But be careful! Before you know it, all your noble intentions will cause a lot of unintended misery and you will soon walk out of the doctor’s room, diagnosed with the “White Savior Syndrome”. But what exactly is this? How did it come to be? How can we escape this while still doing our bit?
The roots of white savior complex: where does it come from?
Us vs. them
To understand the core of the White Savior Syndrome, it is important to start with the colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the British got comfortable in Uganda and Kenya in the late nineteenth century and stubbornly sat on the throne until the 1960s (!). This is when the process of decolonization started, and the countries declared themselves independent. Still, there are certain remains of colonization that slumber in many African societies like a stubborn virus. Remains that lie in books, television, norms and values, academic education or the self-image of many people.
The privilege of white westerners
One of those remains (not only found in Africa, but everywhere around the world) is the privilege that white westerners enjoy thanks to their skin color. I’d bet money on it that every white traveler on the African continent must reluctantly admit to having felt that privilege at some point; whether you are in a big metropolis like Nairobi, or walking through village upcountry. The fact that there is still a great inequality and that your skin color brings certain social benefits, is rock solid. White privilege goes hand in hand with white supremacy: the system that centralizes whiteness. So you could argue that the whole “we-are-white-rich-and-educated-and-have-to-help-poor-Africans” idea does exactly what the name suggests. It maintains this inequality and smoothly facilitates the “us vs. them”- divide, making “us” the white heroes in the story, and “them” the poor, incapable souls who need saving.
The west knows best
In many situations you can smell the fishy odor of this mindset, which is triggered by a line of thought that seems ‘logical’ to many white people: we westerners are not in a position to save, just because. We have prosperity, we are rich and educated, and that is not without reason, is it? So we must know what is best, what is needed to acquire the same success!
This Neo-colonial “us vs. them “-mindset, in which the white westerner is seen as superior to’ the African ‘, justifies everything that is actually not justifiable. We don’t need to get to know the culture, norms and values, or actual needs of the people we are trying to help. As a white person in Africa, we don’t have to wonder if what we think best, is actually the best. We don’t have to wonder if people even want to be ‘saved’ by us at all. As a white volunteer we don’t need to be qualified to teach African children, because we rolled freshly out of high school, and that experience should be sufficient, right? What do such considerations say about the value that we as ‘White Saviors’ accredit to African children’s quality of education?
Motivation: Instagram?
As a good, white Samaritan on the African continent, ask yourself what your intrinsic motivation is. This can sometimes be difficult to determine, because (philosophically speaking) altruism and selfishness often go hand in hand. As pure as your desire to help others may feel, when you look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day, you mostly feel good about yourself. And that’s okay!
But if you post pictures on social media of yourself volunteering in an orphanage in Uganda: surrounded by poor-looking children as if you’re some white Messiah, to prove a point or receive pats on the back, you might ask yourself 1) what impression you’re giving to your fellow human beings in Uganda 2) which harmful stereotypes you’re facilitating.
The negative impact of white saviors
Sawa, we might now understand a little where the White Savior Syndrome comes from. But a question might still remain: what harm can you actually cause by just trying to help? Or handing out cookies to children who look hungry? I will give you some examples that can help explain this. Let’s start with the impact of White Saviorism on the self-esteem of residents.
What impact does it have on any human being when you are constantly labeled as the poor soul that needs saving? When strangers – completely unfamiliar with your culture – breeze into your hometown and start telling you how to live your life? Or if you are not taken seriously by the people who say “they’re just here to help”? If the moment comes where you start to believe that these white strangers actually do know better, will you still be encouraged believe in yourself and fight for a better future?
What is you actual impact, positive and negative? What is your instrinsic motivation? Taking jobs… Or not?
Let’s continue: it also turns out that local economies often get undermined by our heroic actions. Ask yourself: why are we the ones building houses or wells in areas with high unemployment rates? The answer is obvious: we actually pay to be allowed to work, instead of demanding a fair salary for the work we deliver. Not only do we take jobs, many volunteers are not even suited for the job. Again, ask yourself: when is the last time you constructed a school? I alone know several stories of volunteers who found that after they left, the community had to rebuild their structure brick by brick. Then you scratch yourself on the head think: what was the actual value of my help? Who should actually meet the needs of whom?
Then there’s the impact on children, a vulnerable group of humans in every society. The childhood era is most important in shaping a person’s social and emotional development (or any kind of development, really). During childhood, children learn how to trust, how to share, how to emphasize. Research shows that, for example in orphanages or some schools that work with many western volunteers:
A) children develop severe attachment problems due to lack of trust in role models;
B) children’s self-esteem lowers, making them an easy target for grown-ups with bad intentions;
C) access to vulnerable children is normalized (can you imagine a high school student allowed to work with traumatized children in your home country?);
D) children’s development is undermined by lack of routine (volunteers rotating every few weeks);
E) there’s an increase of confusion about cultural identity.
And this is just the tip of the ice berg… Google ‘Voluntourism’, ‘Orphanage business’ or ‘Renee Bach’, and enrich yourself with uncomfortable but necessary knowledge about the harm our good intentions can cause on the African continent.
White, rich and traveling to Africa:
can I still help?
Of course. Whichever way you look at it, westerners (of any color) are often the ones with capital and enough free time to spend longer periods abroad. I do not want to contradict that there are many organizations that have had a significant positive impact in areas that greatly need it. Organizations that have forever changed the lives of many individuals without putting themselves in the spotlight with a fluttering Superman cape around their shoulders. Organizations who are run by Africans or employ enough people from the area at issue to be able to fully understand needs. This is rewarding work, and they can often use a helping hand or donation.
Help consciously
The key word here is ‘circumstances’. The most important thing is that if you, as a white westerner in African countries, want to roll up your sleeves, hand out nice things or donate money while traveling, you consciously think about it. That you first delve into the environment or community that hosts you. Who are the people you would like to help? What kind of help do they really want to receive and what do they actually need? What is your impact, positive and negative? What is your intrinsic motivation? Some tips to help you out:
– If you want to give children some money during a community walk, give it to your guide instead; who will later distribute it among the villagers.
– If you want to volunteer with an organization, first check the ratio between white employees and employees from the country that the organization is actually based in.
– Always remember: you are a guest in this country. Treat your hosts the same way as you’d want to be treated the other way around.
– Try to listen and learn, instead of pushing your own perspectives.
Watch your social media and selfie behavior
The images you shoot, the context in which you post them, and the words you use to describe, are of greater influence than you might think. Not only on the community that hosts you, but also on the image that your boys and girls at home get from the country that you’re visiting. A few rules of thumb: never randomly take pictures of people without their permission! Ask for permission, as you would in your own country. Then make sure that when you post something, you don’t use words or images that degrade people’s dignity or pave the way for stereotyping. (Use #PoorAfricanChild as a hashtag? Preferably not.) Use your social media to showcase the diversity and beauty of the country that will provide you with memories for life!
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