The colonial gesture of development: the interpersonal as a promising site for rethinking aid to Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	The colonial gesture of development: the interpersonal as a promising site for rethinking aid to Africa
Author:	Watson, Marcus D.
Year:	2012
Periodical:	Africa Today (ISSN 1527-1978)
Volume:	59
Issue:	3
Pages:	3-28
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	aid workers rural population neocolonialism body language
External link:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v059/59.3.watson.pdf
Abstract:	While some scholars uncover connections between African development and colonialism in the transition from one set of institutions to the next, others analyse their discourses for similarities. This article builds on the second form of argumentation, particularly in relation to its finding that both colonial and development discourses assume a strict division, hierarchy, and unidirectionality between 'us' and 'them'. In this case study, focusing on the daily interactions between Western aid workers and South African villagers, it is clear that, for the aid workers, this self-over-them schema is a modality of being, grounded in their body behaviour. The author argues that evidence of development as a form of neocolonialism may be etched right into the 'colonial bodies' of many of today's aid workers. Bibliogr., note, sum. [Journal abstract]