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First "Share your Decolonising Story" Published

Reflecting on our Lens: Decolonising Imagery within International Development

In his story, James Andrews from the Institute of Development Studies reflects on the role images play in disrupting or even reinforcing the colonial gaze and the related entrenched power structures. He describes his journey from exposure to deveclopment stereotypes to questioning the underlying structures: "I would see charity appeals on TV showing images of starving black and brown children in need of my donations. I do not recall ever seeing much context given as to why these children were starving, or what impact the history of European colonialism and neoliberal structural adjustment programmes might have had on their lives. All I was shown was that these people were in trouble, unable to help themselves, and with flies in their eyes, it was up to us Western people to save them. It was only much later that I would learn terms like 'poverty porn' and 'white saviour imagery', and be exposed to books like Said’s Orientalism, Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and Chamber’s' Whose Reality Counts?

Read the whole story here or on our blog

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