erceptions can’t be altered overnight, especially if they are rooted in decades of indoctrination. Even so, White Saviourism in International Development: Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences seeks to do just that by offering varied perspectives on a controversial subject. An audacious multi-author anthology edited by Themrise Khan, Kanakulya Dickson and Maïka Sondarjee, the book contains 17 thought-provoking essays that examine the stranglehold of the ‘white gaze’ in Western and European development initiatives. The aim is to highlight the critical flaws in the global aid industry.

From the outset, readers are encouraged to question long-standing practices and mind-sets that have beset international development for decades. This spirit of interrogation isn’t just restricted to the essays but can also be witnessed in the cover image, which offers a powerful critique on the time-honoured yet flawed techniques used by the practitioners. Featuring a black child whose fractured scalp is shrouded by a thick haze of smoke, the cover image warns readers about the rot that has laid siege to global development.

At its core, White Saviourism in International Development is a subversive text that ventures into uncharted territory where even the most distinguished development practitioners wouldn’t dare to tread. For a long time, the white-centric focus of international development has been a behemoth that practitioners have had to begrudgingly put up with. Few among them have gone public with their reservations, as it could compromise their career prospects.

The compilation, therefore, serves as a noble effort to bring this issue to the fore. With each successive essay, readers will find that the long silence surrounding white saviourism in global development is finally being broken.

Deviating from mainstream discourses, the compilation by Khan, Dickson and Sondarjee adopts a cynical thesis on the way in which development aid is structured and delivered. For decades, development models conceived in the Global North have been uncritically transplanted into the Global South. Fuelled by altruism, these initiatives are spearheaded by white saviours whose well-meaning interventions have a deleterious impact on developing countries in the long run. In this anthology, white saviourism is portrayed as an “active collaborator” that hinders the scope for progress. The concept of white saviourism isn’t an ideological crutch that is used to arbitrarily condemn the mechanisms of international development. Instead, the writers who have contributed to the anthology recognise that white saviourism is predicated on a system of subjugation – a vicious cycle that masks oppression as goodwill.

Each essay condemns Western and European development efforts for viewing people in the Global South as passive recipients who cannot find home-grown solutions to their problems. Defying top-down approaches in favour of bottom-up strategies, the compilation explores the power differentials created by the white-centric ideologies that govern the development sector.

The crowning glory of White Saviourism in International Development is that it maintains an interdisciplinary focus. The white-centric logic that assails international development is viewed from a historical, philosophical and socio-cultural lens. In addition, the essays aren’t myopic academic treatises that approach the issue from a theoretical standpoint. On the contrary, the emphasis remains on providing practical insights that draw upon the ground realities. As a result, the compilation serves as a valuable manual for development practitioners.

Be that as it may, the ideas presented in this volume aren’t esoteric and can be easily understood. The contributors resist the temptation to use heavy jargon and abstruse concepts. Readers having only a cursory understanding of white saviourism are offered a clear roadmap of its origins and potential dangers.

The initial essays reveal how the world’s chequered history of colonialism has affected the direction of the aid industry. More often than not, these colonial encounters have resulted in the annihilation of local customs. Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas captures the alarming extent of this annihilation by examining the historical underpinnings of white saviourism. Using the example of sixteenth-century settler Bartolomé de las Casas, Saavedra-Vargas explores the “ethos behind the modern industrial-colonial-patriarchal” white-saviour complex. Disillusioned by the atrocities committed by his own people against their colonial subjects, Casas endeavoured to introduce “humane colonisation practices”. In his eye-opening essay, Saavedra-Vargas reveals how Casas’ altruism was futile as he failed to challenge tyrannical colonial structures and believed that solutions can only be sought through an inherently ‘Christianised’ social order.

Other essays in the compilation build on the arguments raised in Saavedra-Vargas’ piece. Sadaf Shallwani and Shama Dosa’s essay reveals how the lingering effect of the white gaze in development initiatives introduced in the Global South acts as a fetter on the agency of the non-white population. Through this well-reasoned essay, the authors offer useful techniques to expunge the white gaze from the development discourses. Leila Benhadjoudja’s treatise explores the “warrior mind-set” that informs efforts to safeguard women in conflict-riven Muslim countries. This logic, as the writer suggests, lacks nuance and is based on long-standing colonial notions that perceive the West as the hub of emancipation.

Themrise Khan’s essay turns an intimate gaze on the “white matriarch” – white women who subconsciously consider their knowledge to be superior to that of non-white women. Readers who enjoyed Rafia Zakaria’s path-breaking book Against White Feminism will find this chapter equally scintillating and insightful.

Many students of development studies will benefit from the compilation as it explores a problem with global development that is seldom discussed. A series of common theoretical and practical themes, such as ethicality, resonate through most of the essays. Some writers call for the “de-Westernisation” of development aid, while others urge readers to question who benefits from the existing scenario in international development.

The most effective part of the compilation is the testimonials and lived experiences of development practitioners. Stripped of all academic artifice, these accounts are steered by professional insights and personal observations. For instance, Radha Shah’s account of her experiences as a gender development consultant stands out as a strong indictment of the white gaze that
has besieged the aid industry.

Incisive and engaging, White Saviourism In International Development sets the record straight about an industry that operates on a misguided principle of goodwill.

White Saviourism in International Development: Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences

Editors: Themrise Khan, Kanakulya Dickson and Maïka Sondarjee

Publisher: Daraja Press, 2023

Pages: 268

The reviewer is a freelance journalist and the author of Typically Tanya