African Philanthropy: Reclaiming Agency and Narratives

Africa is not waiting to be saved. Africa is already rising, through generosity, innovation, and shared humanity. That conviction runs through every article in this series, and it is worth stating plainly at the outset, because so much of what these writers examine is the opposite: a long history of narratives that positioned Africa as a problem to be solved, a crisis to be managed, a continent defined by what it lacks rather than what it holds.

This edition brings together six writers to examine the evolution of narratives about Africa in the global development sector. The series spans from the colonial roots of those narratives to the movements that are actively dismantling them. It is a body of work that is, at once, an act of excavation and an act of reclamation.

Moses Wanjala reframes the conversation entirely. The article on African philanthropy challenges the double erasure that Western narratives have performed: rendering invisible both the long tradition of giving embedded in African cultures (ubuntu, Harambee, mutual aid networks) and the growing ecosystem of African-led funding and civic innovation. From grassroots digital fundraising platforms to the Africapitalism model championed by Tony Elumelu, the article documents a continent that has never stopped investing in itself, even when that investment was systematically overlooked. Decolonising philanthropy, it is argued, means refusing to beg for scraps while the continent’s own abundance lies dormant.

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