Voluntourism: Neo-Colonialism in Disguise

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.

Harkiran Bharij turns to one of the more commercially entrenched expressions of that saviour dynamic: voluntourism. The article interrogates the multi-million pound industry built on short-term volunteering in Africa, probing how it romanticises poverty, prioritises the volunteer’s experience over the community’s needs, and replicates colonial power imbalances under the cover of good intentions. Crucially, the article does not stop at critique: it maps alternative models of engagement, community-based tourism, skills-matched volunteering that centre local agency and build lasting capacity.

To download using link click ‘File’>'Download’