White savior in colonial outfit: Melania Trump was heavily criticized for this appearance
Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP
#africanchild, #FromSlumWithLove, #PutASmileOnAChildsFace: Instagram hashtags from an orphanage in Nairobi.
Above that are many pictures of white young women and men who either hold black babies in their arms, feed black children or make up for black girls.
"I'm here to help the children and young people," a Portuguese - white - woman is quoted as saying.
Above that, an appeal for donations.
There is now a term for this phenomenon, and it is not meant in a positive way: White Saviorism.
Whites as saviors, blacks as those to be saved.
First we dance, then we donate
Visit to the Inua Mimi Rescue Center, the orphanage in Kenya's capital, where these pictures were taken.
The manager, Paschaliah Nduku, climbs a narrow staircase into a narrow office, an old television is on in the corner.
Nduku doesn't find anything wrong with the photos.
"Yes, these are our rescuers," she says, referring to the white volunteers and tourists who, at least before the outbreak of the pandemic, regularly came and went here.
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Home manager Paschaliah Nduku currently has to do without volunteers from Europe and the USA
Photo: Zakaria Ahmed / DER SPIEGEL
“It's good to discuss the subject.
But why should I say no when they bring me the money? ”Asks Nduku.
The donations usually follow a fixed ritual: White tourists book one of the many slum tours in Nairobi.
The guide then takes them to an orphanage like the Inua Mimi Rescue Center.
Once there, the children gather in a semicircle and begin to sing and dance.
Mostly they are songs that Europeans know from Kenya vacations.
At the end there is a donation.
But this dependence on white benefactors is currently taking its toll.
Because since the beginning of the pandemic they haven't been.
Also the volunteers from Europe and America who help out for a few weeks in the many orphanages and schools.
The feeling of having achieved something good and important usually costs several thousand euros in fees.
“It all broke away,” says Paschaliah Nduku.
“I don't know what the problem is with us blacks,” she says, pinching herself on the arm as if to point out the color of her skin.
"But we get the donations from the whites, not from our own people."
Everyone wants photos with black children
It is precisely this self-perception that is the problem for Sophie Otiende: “The entire aid industry has been telling us locals for years how we should see ourselves.
As people who have to be helped from the outside, who cannot do it themselves. «She finds pictures with white rescuers» just horrible «.
The Kenyan activist works with victims of human trafficking and has run several homes for survivors.
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Sophie Otiende now has the young people photographed themselves - without white rescuers
Photo: Zakaria Ahmed / DER SPIEGEL
Again and again these questions came from white Europeans and Americans: "Can I take my picture with the children?", "Can I help out here?"
Some of the helpful people had just graduated from high school.
"In order to work with traumatized children in Europe, you need a solid education," says Otiende.
“Why should it be any different here?
Because whites know how to help Africans? "
She has nothing against whites who want to get involved, assures the 35-year-old.
Your condition: You must stay for at least six months and have the necessary training.
All others are turned away, and the classic rescue photos with black children are also taboo.
“With these conditions, it was extremely difficult for me to raise funds.
Because the whole system is based on White Saviorism. "
In a private jet for a treat
A German woman was once outraged: "But they are poor people who need help." Otiendes answer: "Not this kind of help." The 35-year-old activist has now started a new project together with other organizations, it works about ethical narratives in the auxiliary industry.
Without White Savior motifs, water bellies, runny noses and flies in the eyes.
To do this, she handed cameras to young people herself to document what they consider important.
Other people in charge of children's homes who prefer to remain anonymous tell very similar stories.
"We once had a request from a rich German who came in a private jet and wanted to start a large-scale fundraising campaign," says a home operator.
»A hopeful trip to the sea for children with sad eyes.
When I explained to her that the children had been to the sea many times and that they might need money for school fees, we never heard from her again. "
"There will be a vacuum when the traditional white savior narrative is gone," says Otiende.
"The question is which stories we want to tell instead."
Joshua Kisamwa has already found the answer for himself.
In flip-flops, the filmmaker stands with his legs apart in one of the poorer districts of Nairobi, his elbows on his stomach.
The camera points to two blind women, they wear dark sunglasses and tell stories of the incredible challenges in this part of the Kenyan capital.
Immediately afterwards, Kisamwa interviews the team of a grassroots organization that supports people with disabilities on site.
By Kenyans for Kenyans.
His stories, too, often revolve around common themes from the African continent: stories of poverty, child marriages, and suffering.
But always with local heroes and a wider context.
He and nine other filmmakers recently received a major contract: the British organization Comic Relief ordered short films.
The story behind this contract represents the profound change that is currently underway in the auxiliary industry.
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"Better if we tell the stories ourselves," says filmmaker Joshua Kisamwa
Photo: Zakaria Ahmed / DER SPIEGEL
Among other things, Comic Relief organizes Red Nose Day, a benefit campaign that is also broadcast on German television.
In the past few years, Comic Relief has received massive criticism, largely for its fundraising videos and photos.
The pop star Ed Sheeran among poor street children in Africa, underlaid with sad music.
The presenter Stacey Dooley is holding a black child, the classic white savior.
The criticism followed promptly and it came mainly from Twitter and Facebook accounts of black activists.
Ed Sheeran is no longer coming
Now Comic Relief wants to do everything better and has hired Joshua Kisamwa, among others.
"Times have changed, and so have we," it says ruefully in a press release published by Comic Relief in autumn 2020. Instead of international stars who have arrived, local filmmakers are now supposed to tell their stories.
Joshua Kisamwa has already finished the first film.
It is the story of Rehema, a woman from the Kenyan coast who campaigns against child marriage.
"Better we tell these stories ourselves than whites talk about us," says Kisamwa.
It is also about self-confidence: “This is the legacy of the colonial era, we were dependent for decades and many still hope for outside help.
We didn't see our own potential.
That is the main damage. "
In the pandemic, rescuers think of themselves first
In the corona pandemic, too, the common story goes: The West has let Africa down, the continent will not get any vaccinations before Europe and America have been taken care of.
"Of course that's true," says Nigerian molecular biologist Christian Happi.
»But why do we always ask: What are the others doing for us?
And not: What can we do ourselves? "
In his modern laboratory in Ede, Nigeria, Happi has been researching the coronavirus around the clock for months.
His team is currently developing its own vaccine, especially based on African virus sequences.
In animal experiments, the vaccine showed an effectiveness of more than 90 percent.
"Nobody would have thought that something like this could be developed in Africa," says Happi.
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He is researching a corona vaccination "made in Africa" - the Nigerian molecular biologist Christian Happi
Photo: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP
There is still a lack of funds to carry out the necessary clinical studies on human subjects.
Virologist Happi hopes the Nigerian government will do its part.
"The pandemic in particular has shown that we have to exhaust our own potential in Africa and find solutions ourselves." Because the supposed rescuers are currently thinking of themselves first.
Olivia, Wendy and Kelsey also fight the colonial legacy in their own way.
The three women from Kampala in Uganda founded the organization No White Saviors and have been making life difficult for self-appointed white rescuers ever since.
You have organized successful social media campaigns, including against Comic Relief.
Olivia worked for a church organization in Uganda, Kelsey - the white American - was her boss.
At the age of 23, without international experience.
"The system is broken," say the women.
Kelsey herself came to Africa as a white savior.
“I thought I had to come here to help.
At some point I realized that I was part of the problem, ”says Kelsey.
"You don't need whites to show you where to go."
Now even large organizations are seeking advice from No White Saviors.
Organizations like Care, which generate $ 500 million in annual revenue in the US alone.
"We have changed perception," say the activists, not without pride.
But they are exposed to massive hostility, from US Conservatives to Ugandans who do not understand the excitement.
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From Uganda they organize Shitstorms: the team from No White Saviors
Photo: No White Saviors
For a long time, the White Saviors debate only took place in England and America, but it has now also reached Germany.
Katharina Pauls, who does not want to see her real name published, also felt this.
Together with friends, she runs an association that finances an orphanage in an African country, among other things.
"I've never thought about this before," she admits.
They also posted pictures of white helpers with orphans on social networks.
In the past year there were suddenly critical comments, which eventually grew into a veritable shit storm.
"That's when we began to question whether we were using traditional stereotypes," says Pauls.
In the meantime they have set up their own working group to deal with the subject of White Saviorism.
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Decades of tradition: Even Princess Diana liked to act as a savior (1997)
Photo: Jose Manuel Ribeiro / REUTERS
Recently there was a report about the home on German television.
What was left after the cut was a white woman distributing aid to black children.
"That horrified us, we distanced ourselves."
Does a European have to fly in?
Many larger aid organizations are currently dealing with the question: Are we too white?
Does a European have to fly into Malawi or Zambia to lead a project?
Why are the management floors so rarely occupied by people from Africa?
Because when children in villages perceive whites as managers and locals as managed during aid missions, the image of the White Savior continues.
The Black Lives Matter movement has triggered a violent process, says Save the Children CEO Susanna Krüger.
Save the Children works for disadvantaged children worldwide.
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»That will change us«, says Susanna Krüger from Save the Children
Photo: Save the Children
“This wave has triggered profound changes.” In the past few months, the organization has dealt with structural racism, with power structures in its own apparatus.
Nice photo shoots by sponsors with black children have long been taboo, which is forbidden by child protection.
"Some donors still want that and then we don't get together," says Krüger.
Controversial sponsorships
The American branch of Save the Children is still sticking to sponsorships for poor children in Africa and Asia: »Help a child in Africa to have a better life.« Board member Susanna Krüger is not very happy about that, she stays too much the aftertaste of the "white savior".
"We have never sponsored this kind of sponsorship in Germany," she says.
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It also works without white saviors: an aid project by Unicef and Save the Children
Photo: Ben Curtis / picture alliance / AP Photo
In the orphanage Inua Mimi Rescue Center in Nairobi, children have stopped dancing for white visitors for a long time, because tourists and volunteers prefer to stay in their safe home because of Covid.
The home manager Paschaliah Nduku now has to look for donors in the neighborhood.
"I prefer it when the money comes from here," she says.
Under #africanchild there are now only pictures without white saviors on Instagram.
Icon: The mirror
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