See The World And Save It: Voluntourism In Africa
- By Rezz Q. Mei and Xavier Whyte
- Oct 27, 2017
- 2 min read
Your benevolence will be much appreciated by the people in young and primitive Africa - a playground for you to learn and gain real life experience from. Put your top-notch GoPro skills to good use by capturing emotionally captivating images. After which, be sure to post them on social media with accompanying statements about how tragic, local life is. Never forget to always be in the centre of attention, while talking about your privileged life experiences. Afterall, isn’t voluntourism about knowing how to take the struggles of those you’re helping and making it all about how good you are? A little-known fact, voluntourism in Africa is an excellent avenue to exhibit your love for theatre - acting like a doctor, teacher or any other specialized profession of your choice, when you provide help. There is nothing more satisfying than feeling sorry for the people in Africa, fixing their problems and then feeling wonderful about yourselves after. Remember, their future is in your hands.
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Seriously tho,
Travel guides often perpetuate the saviour mindset in voluntourism. A saviour can refer to one who attempts to rescue people from communities that they perceive to be underprivileged. Even when volunteering with good intentions, saviours can very possibly portray themselves as heroes while exoticizing and victimizing the communities they provide help to. Such ideas can inaccurately frame these communities as completely helpless, being unable to solve their own problems and condescendingly assert that only the ‘saviours’ are competent enough to save them. These assumptions then tend to unfairly suggest that this is how such communities should be seen, possibly legitimizing inequality in treatment. This can be seen from how voluntourists often try to perform specialized skills in their volunteering, when back in their home countries they would not be allowed to do so without proper qualifications. In addition, such a mindset can create room for ignoring leaders in these communities, while encouraging the need for dependency on the voluntourists as saviours. In this way, ironically, the voluntourists may not necessarily be benefiting the communities that they claim to be helping.
Do you have any thoughts or experiences regarding such a ‘saviour’ mindset?
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