81 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Abibifahodie Asafo (Black Liberation Warrior)

Thanks for this insight.The white saviour complex seems to have been present in the mental and behaviours of non-Blacks and Blacks for centuries indeed.
Here are some sections I found from an interesting confession that many seem to find controversial. It was made by a non-Black person who said to have suffered from this white saviour complex. (https://thoughtcatalog.com/janice-erlbaum/2015/08/confessions-of-a-white-savior/, Confessions Of A (Former) White Savior, By Janice Erlbaum, August 24th 2015) 

“Volunteering with kids of color didn’t make me less racist. It just made me differently racist.” 

“The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.” – Teju Cole 

“Yeah. I wanted to feel good about myself. I wanted the right to brag: Look at me, saving the world. I wanted street cred and the latest slang and the chance to be an ally. I wanted to feel less guilty for having so much when others have so little. I wanted to absolve myself of the sins of my country. Any misfortune I’d suffered was long in the past, and I’d become comfortable and spoiled, so I wanted to put myself in proximity to misfortune so I could talk about it as though it were mine.” 

“Looking back, I can see that I was condescending, micro-aggressing, and “othering” all over the place…”  

“I’d arranged things so that the black people in my life were the underclass. That’s how I was comfortable seeing them.” 

“There’s a long-standing American tradition whereby privileged people travel to impoverished areas so they can “help.” This imbues the privileged person with pride, satisfaction, and what they hope is a lifetime pass on confronting issues of racism or racial inequality.” 

“I don’t want to discount the motives of every white volunteer, and I certainly don’t want to cast aspersions on the people working for non-governmental aid organizations who do life-saving work under impossibly dangerous circumstances (though NGOs often come with their own imperialist agendas)” 

“But volunteers and voluntourists can also avoid using people as props for their egos or Instagram feeds.”

“I grew up under the pervasive influence of a culture that taught me that black-skinned people were lesser than me, and the years of brainwashing I accepted without question will take years to overcome.” 

“The only thing I can save other people from is my own misconceptions.The only person I can save is myself. “ 

Among the many other causes that might have reinforced this type of incondonable incident in Gambia, the recent political crisis in 2017 that the country went through, the fragile transition phase betwofn the old and the new governance and the vital place that tourism occupies in the country’s development,
all of the these might have also contributed, one way or the other, to wanting, to the detriment of the Indigenous people of the land, to serve better the non-black visitors who are seen and broadcast to bring money in and to facilitate the creation of more jobs and infrastructures in this particular industry.