Unlearning the “Master’s Tools”: Can International Development Be Decolonized?

Source: World Bank/Simone D. McCourte

By Ryan Sutherland

Highly publicized campaigns like the #RhodesMustFall movement at Oxford and the University of Cape Town and the #WhyIsMyCurriculumWhite? movement at the University of Cambridge have quickly spread across the globe, calling attention to colonialism’s continued legacy within international development and academia. Although some scholars have claimed that development has been slow to decolonize, progress is being made.[1] Much research points to transitions toward the incorporation of post-colonial theories that critique development practices and aim to centralize local voices in development conversations.[2] 

To decolonize development aid practice, practitioners and scholars of development must work to dismantle hegemonic power structures. Passive engagement with tropes of sustainability, diversity, inclusion, equality, and participation alone will not accomplish this goal. The development community must utilize indigenous development frameworks like ubuntu, reflect on historical and present-day power hierarchies between aid givers and recipients, curate community-led conversations around development needs, and incorporate local leadership in development projects to address historical wrongs. In this article, I first explore major criticisms and challenges to decolonization within international development, with a focus on development aid projects in particular. I then propose possible solutions and provide examples of present decolonizing efforts, illustrating development’s evolution toward decolonization.

Toward a Decolonial Future in Development: Key Definitions

I will start with some key theoretical definitions of critical colonization-decolonization concepts. By Margaret Kohn’s definition, “colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another.”[3] Specifically related to the expansion of empire through exploitation, colonialism involves the “policy or practice of acquiring…control over another country…and exploiting it economically,” exposing power and privilege differentials.[4] Conversely, decolonization is the intellectual process of combating legacies of colonialism, referring to “the process of deconstructing colonial ideologies regarding the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approach.”[5] Applying this concept to development, Sultana suggests that “decolonizing development means disrupting the deeply-rooted hierarchies, asymmetric power structures, the universalization of Western knowledge, the privileging of whiteness, and the taken-for-granted Othering of the majority world.”[6]

Melissa Leach sees development as the “social, economic, political and technological change that leads to better lives,” a definition that is similar to that of Amartya Sen in Development as Freedom: “….development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.”[7] Sen and Leach’s definition focuses on freedom and agency that centers the wellbeing of the poor in development practice. However, development projects have frequently been criticized for advancing the interests of developed economies and furthering colonial power dynamics. As the Development Studies Association of Australia notes, “…development has been used, among other things, to justify colonial rule, through the expropriation of lands and other resources, and has been integral to the expansion of economic structures that have benefitted the Global North at the expense of the Global South,” historically linked to colonial intervention.[8] To this end, according to Srinivas Melkote and H. Leslie Steeves, development began as a process of “…basically westernization through…modernization. Ideas and experts were mostly exogenous and the models top-down and prescriptive.”[9] This established a certain style of development that enmeshed recently liberated nations in Western (colonial) interests. As Jonathan Langdon noted, inspired by Gilbert Rist, “decolonisation did not mean be free from the West, it rather meant be like the West.”[10] 

Furthermore, the “white gaze of development,” defined as “...the political, socio-economic and cultural processes of [measuring] Southern Black, brown and other people of color against a standard of Northern Whiteness [that] finds them incomplete, wanting, inferior or regressive.”[11] This continues to be a common criticism of development projects that historically valorized aid workers as saviors and portrayed the recipients of aid as helpless, incapable victims. Such framing denies agency and permits Western dominance in conversations that should be co-curated with local stakeholders. 

Overall, I argue that Western framings of development can and should shift toward decolonization and note that while its colonial legacy remains, development practice is moving in this direction. In the subsequent paragraphs, I look at several concepts put forth by scholars, including the indigenous concept of ubuntu, inspiring Swanson’s “humble togetherness” framework, and Tavernaro-Haidarian’s concept of “mutual empowerment” that represents hopeful steps toward decolonization.

Embracing Ubuntu, ‘Humble Togetherness’ and ‘Mutual Empowerment’: A Shift in Development Framings

A key ideology necessary for the decolonization of development is the indigenous African concept of ubuntu, sometimes translated from Zulu as “togetherness.” According to James Ogude, “ubuntu is the African idea of personhood: persons depend on other persons to be.”[12] Stanlake and Samkange provide a useful breakdown of ubuntuism, segregating it into three maxims. They note: 

The first maxim asserts that to be human is to affirm one’s humanity by recognizing the humanity of others and…establish respectful human relations with them. And the second maxim means that if and when one is faced with a decisive choice between wealth and the preservation of the life of another human being, then one should opt for the preservation of life. The third maxim as a principle deeply embedded in traditional African political philosophy says that the king owed his status, including all the powers associated with it, to the will of the people under him.[13]

Thus, the concept of ubuntu depends on 1) democratic principles of shared power in decision making; 2) a de-prioritization of capitalist motivations; 3) a preference for collective needs over individual ones; and 4) respect. These principles are critical to decolonization efforts. Closely aligned with Dalene Swanson’s notion of “humble togetherness,” development should provide “legitimizing spaces for transcendence of injustice and a more democratic, egalitarian and ethical engagement of human beings in relationship with each other.”[14] Swanson notes that ubuntu “…offers hope and possibility in its contribution to human rights,” suggesting that this equalizing view of personhood and democratization is essential to the development project.[15]

Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian goes further with the idea of “mutual empowerment.” This idea “draws on the immaterial (non-economic, psycho spiritual) aspects of power embedded in the literature on ubuntu” and reveals “lines of action where those involved in development efforts can potentially discover an open-ended number of ways in which to collectively ‘create’, ‘evolve’, ‘advance’ and ‘contribute.’”[16] Tavernaro-Haidarian views decolonization as a process of “constructive resilience” which she describes as “building on” and as a process of “integrating” the various ways of knowing that exist in the repository of the world’s cultures and values.”[17] She argues that, using ubuntu as an intellectual foundation, “decolonisation can be reimagined as a constructive process of resilience that significantly transcends coloniality.”[18] These concepts are potent in recalibrating development in the direction of equity and toward critical, reflective togetherness. 

Only through mutual empowerment, humble togetherness, constructive resilience, and democratization rooted in the indigenous concept of ubuntu can we address the “historical silences and violences” of development.[19] To this end, development will never be decolonized without deconstructing its assumptions and incorporating indigenous tools and implementation styles. 

Redefining Expertise to Honor Local Knowledge

One important step to decolonizing development is redefining expertise through a local, indigenous lens. Michael Sandel articulates that credentialism is a “tyranny of merit,” and often, those with advanced degrees from Western institutions are viewed more favorably in hiring practices for leadership roles in development projects.[20] These practices expose a hierarchy that values Western over indigenous knowledge. Including calls for decolonization and indigenous knowledge production within job postings can be a powerful step toward decolonization. For example, a job posting by the Nairobi-based humanitarian nonprofitAdeso states that the organization has “…programs in Somalia along with global programs to decolonize and transform the humanitarian and development aid architecture. If you are passionate about the movement to decolonize the aid system…Adeso is the right place for you [emphasis added].”[21] Organizations like Results for Development have launched databases for finding local expertise and locally-led technical assistance training. These are useful ways to connect experts in low- and middle-income countries with projects that their skills could undoubtedly benefit. Efforts to decolonize must go beyond lip service gesturing at decolonizing aid and must involve more diverse hiring practices and organizational mission change.[22]

Working Toward Salary and Grant Parity

Salary, benefit, and grant disparities between experts from the Global South and Global North also represent a problematic trend. Grant disparities that favor Western leadership are unfortunately common. Devex recently reported that “...organizations led by Africans tend to get less money—with more strings attached—compared with those led by others.”[23] Failure to consult local expertise, disparities in access to grant funding, and salary and benefit dissimilarities are crippling efforts to decolonize development.[24] Organizations like the UN are beginning to increase pay for field staff with the aim of achieving pay parity, providing more paid internship opportunities, and expanding access to those from developing contexts by deprioritizing traditional notions of “merit” in hiring practices.[25] To decolonize development, the development community must center the voices of those impacted by development to work toward grant and salary parity.

Intellectual Decolonization and Indigenous Framings in Capacity Building

Moreover, attempts at “capacity building” have often been misguided, frequently defined by external (Western) actors. As Lucy Morris and Andres Gomez de la Torre note, “Capacity-building is structured and judged according to Western standards.”[26] Speaking to the harmful dynamic this creates, they observe that “...complex problems like poverty, violence, and conflict are examined using a very academic or ‘scientifically robust’ approach…[and] it becomes a problem when ‘sophisticated’ language and design end up acting to exclude or marginalise certain voices.”[27] Western theories of knowledge and evaluative assessment tools can sometimes fail to measure locally-relevant data, necessitating the collection of more locally meaningful data and the incorporation of indigenous frameworks.[28] Furthermore, the theoretical frameworks used in development themselves can be decolonized. Intellectual decolonization, or the process of undoing the “mental impacts of colonization” requires replacing Euro-American frameworks as an important step to redefining both ‘capacity’ and ‘expertise’ to truly decolonize academic spaces and development projects.[29] Indigenous framings within development projects are more frequently being used and suggested by development organizations, indicating gradual decolonial progress.[30]

Recognizing Structural Racism and the “Overarching White World View”

Another important step is recognizing that racism plays a fundamental role in continuing colonial legacies.[31] Racism dictates how “funding, knowledge transfer and aid, in general, are organized,” and it is this structural legacy of institutionalized racism and its relation to power hierarchies that must be acknowledged and dismantled. Racism in development manifests most directly in a lack of representation.[32] Peace Direct discusses a common trope of an international non-government organization (INGO): “…the INGO country office operates like a neo-colonialist outpost, staffed by white Western expatriates, dominating the funding for development, humanitarian and peace-building work while implementing programmes with little local input, thereby competing with—and displacing—local organisations.”[33] This creates an “overarching white world view” in development which results in a myopic and self-centered vision of aid that greatly diminishes its effectiveness.[34] Committees that deal specifically with reconciliation and representation, such as the post-apartheid South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), acknowledge the intergenerational effects of racism on development, helping to guide conversations around unlearning racism.[35] Ensuring that local community interests are central to development projects can improve aid efficacy and impact by reframing the projects through the lens of local ownership and dignity, rather than through that of the “white world view.” Establishing similar committees like the TRC, built on the recognition of structural racism in institutions, helps to redirect development on a decolonial path. 

Rejecting Fetishization and the Aid Imaginary

Furthermore, fetishization in the development field builds a problematic aid imaginary that stigmatizes and stereotypes impoverished people. As Clare Short notes, “the face of aid and international development…must move away from using the poor and their fragility to attract funds,” toward a model of sustainability and parity.[36] Poverty porn—defined as “simplified stories that exploit the subject’s suffering to activate support”—serves to further marginalize the marginalized.[37] To make aid more just, decolonized, and equitable, its messaging must focus on portraying people authentically and with dignity in the ways that they wish to be portrayed. Using harmful fundraising narratives that center on suffering instead of empowerment—images of emaciated children or natural disasters, for example—deprives those living in developing regions of their agency to control their own narratives.[38] As Catherine Thomas et. al note, “Receiving help can convey social devaluation, generate shame, and diminish feelings of personal efficacy. Common stigmatizing narratives of poverty can reinforce this self-devaluation.”[39] Examples of development campaigns that move toward parity and away from tokenization already exist.[40] But increased “representation, inclusion, diversity and equality” are not enough—work must be done to critically reflect on how these buzzwords can tokenize lived experience, in the spirit of ubuntu, humble togetherness, and mutual empowerment.[41] Foluke Ifejola Adebisi notes, “the four main things decolonisation is confused with are, representation, inclusion, diversity and equality…without critical thought, representation can become toxic and tokenistic, people could be included into spaces that are not safe for them, spaces historically and repeatedly designed to harm and exclude them.”[42]

Decolonizing Language and Expanding Co-Authorship Opportunities

Linguistically, some scholars argue that certain terminology may uphold harmful power dynamics (such as using terms like “First World” and “Third World” or other dichotomous terms) and otherize countries facing poverty and development challenges; although as in the field of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), some historically colonial terms like “Third World” are being reclaimed and repurposed by indigenous scholars.[43] Favoring terminologies that dismantle global hegemony through the language of empowerment—like framing development in terms of “resilience,” “growth,” and “human capital”—avoids generalizations and reject geographic determinism.[44] Using terms to denote specific populations, settings, or areas of interest instead of deficit-focused descriptors can also serve as important steps in decolonization to return more narrative power to aid recipients.[45]

Ngugi’s seminal work also relays the need to decolonize language, criticizing the primacy of French, Spanish, and English in development publications, and points to the urgent need for scholarship to be translated into local languages to best ensure its dissemination to local stakeholders.[46] Ngugi’s argument must extend to co-authorship as well. Development scholars and practitioners must expand co-authorship opportunities and continue to decolonize academia, valuing the ideas and scholarship of local academics.[47] Journals should aim to admit more diverse perspectives from scholars from developing countries and reduce barriers to accessing publications (such as paywalls) to encourage a wide assortment of perspectives to truly decolonize development knowledge.[48]

Additionally, transitioning away from othering terminologies that code collaborators as “beneficiaries” and changing them to “co-participants” or “co-authors,” terms that betray attempts at academic allyship, can redirect the purpose and impact of development, valuing lived experience and local expertise. Arguing to reform language used to describe aid partners, Rahul Mitra, Humanitarian Lead for Oxfam in the Pacific, observed that “the word ‘beneficiary’ implies that an individual or a community is a passive recipient of aid, and that the aid provided was beneficial…referring to a recipient of assistance as a "beneficiary" upholds power dynamics and does not promote systems of accompaniment where the group needing assistance is seen as an equal to those providing it.”[49] Even the way development scholars and practitioners talk about engaging in development work can be stigmatizing. According to Tessy Cherono Maritim, using terms like “going to ‘the field’…fuels this…fantasy of ‘exploring in the wild’ or going somewhere dangerous to rescue people with no autonomy or initiative…the term perpetuates this idea of a powerful centre and places [those] outside this as the ‘other.’”[50] Khan furthers this idea by noting that “by becoming co-authors in the shaping of language, communication[,] and curriculum, collaborators transcend imposition and create agency, authenticity, relevance and participation….”[51]

Adopting Inclusive Pedagogical Techniques and Undoing Harmful Colonial Curricula 

Adopting inclusive pedagogical techniques is also essential to decolonizing development, avoiding entrenched biases, and honoring indigenous ways of knowing.[52] Scholarship such as bell hooks’ 1994 work Teaching to Transgress and Freire’s 1970 Pedagogy of the Oppressed offer models by which decolonized curricula can be based. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s book Decolonizing the Mind looks at the way colonial education limits self-definition and inhibits students from learning about multiplicities of cultural knowledges. Freire noted that decolonial, emancipated forms of education require: 

“negotiated curricula (not a regimented curricula or teaching style but a dialogical education), problem-posing education (critical thinking for the purpose of liberation through dialogue, listening, and action), critical conscientization (becoming aware of oppressive systems), humanization (to reject banking model of education) and praxis (action-reflection-action).”[53]

Similarly, bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress focuses on decentering Western traditional education styles, encouraging multicultural reflection, empowering student agency, honoring marginalized voices, and understanding positionality.[54] Decentering Eurocentric teaching and learning paradigms and research methodologies is key to decolonizing development education.[55] Universities perpetuate inequality by embedding classist, white normative, hegemonic, and patriarchal viewpoints within curricula and archives.[56] The increasing diversity in development studies and international affairs departments, historically staffed by white colonial administrators, is a promising indicator of decolonial progress, but more needs to be done by scholars and practitioners of development. 

A variety of institutions have successfully undone some colonial aspects of their curricula. Ghana’s University of Development Studies has incorporated indigenous knowledge through its Integrated Development Studies program and refocused programming around indigenous knowledge.[57] Furthermore, guides like the SOAS Toolkit suggest actionable ways to decolonize curricula, highlight indigenous scholarship, and reform reading lists about development practice.[58]. Lecturers at Edinburgh and De Montfort University, among other universities around the globe, are adjusting their pedagogical techniques to incorporate decolonial suggestions.[59] Thus, development can be decolonized by adopting critical, reflective pedagogical methods that reject harmful colonial knowledge. 

Increasing Trade, Not Aid

Finally, aid prioritization must be placed in the hands of local stakeholders. Supposedly altruistic, development aid has in many instances destabilized economies and built dependence.[60] Corporate and government interests have largely dominated development practices.[61] A recent report published by the Overseas Development Institute noted that “...wealthy countries are increasingly spending foreign aid to promote national interests rather than reduce global poverty.”[62] Beyond just governments, the practices of “tied” aid, which the OECD describes as “official grants or loans that limit procurement to companies in the donor country or in a small group of countries,” is common in World Bank, IMF, and some INGO operations.[63] When countries receiving tied aid loans default on them, the agreement terms provide lenders preferential access to strategic land and resources as a form of repayment, a structure that is functionally similar to extractive colonial infrastructures that enmesh these countries in cycles of debt. Recent initiatives that call for increased trade, not aid, are steps toward decolonizing development practices that build robust, self-sustaining decolonial economies.[64]

Supporting Locally Defined Project Metrics and Funding Priorities

Furthermore, allowing local communities the chance to define metrics of project success is essential to ensure the sustainability and efficacy of projects. One example of a failed project in Madhya Pradesh, India, is the Gyandoot program. This project aimed to increase internet literacy among rural youth by building computer kiosks. The World Bank acknowledged that “currently only a few of the kiosks have proved commercially viable.”[65] Despite the inaccessibility of computer kiosks due to community disinterest and electricity shortages, the evaluation stated that the initiative was successful.[66] While the World Bank successfully spent grant money on this failed project, using local metrics of success would have prevented useless investment in projects of this type, or at least would have signaled to project management teams that significant overhaul and reevaluation of projects of this type were necessary.[67] Other examples of real project failure due to poorly defined metrics of success are easy to find.[68] Local insight for funding allocation is necessary for local communities to define development success in their own terms.[69] 

Decolonial Transitions in Development: Embracing Local Expertise

Examples exist of decolonial transitions in funding and prioritization. For example, Grand Challenges Canada’s (GCC) Transition-to-Scale program has committed almost $60 billion in grants, restricting these funds to locally-led initiatives. Organizations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s largest development funder, have started to assess more robustly “the strength and overall viability of the civil society sector,” requiring partnership with local partners to ensure sustainability and buy-in before project initiation.[70] The National Institute of Mental Health’s Strengthening Mental Health Research and Training (SMART) Africa Project represents a “transdisciplinary collaborative partnership to engage stakeholders from academia, government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and local communities.”[71] SMART is yet another example of a development project evolving to increasingly involve local communities and expertise.

Unlearning the ‘Master’s Tools’

Since their inception, international affairs and development studies have benefited from colonial foundations, operating with and legitimized by utilizing the “master’s tools.”[72] Audre Lorde notes, “for the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change….”[73] If we were to change our development toolbox, unlearning the master’s tools, would decolonization be possible? The process of revising curricula to “un/re-learn... accepted ‘truths’” can eliminate stigmatizing or tokenizing tropes that deprive communities in the Global South of agency or authentic representation.[74] Moreover, increasing access to publication and co-authorship opportunities to scholars in developing contexts are key steps to decolonizing development. Furthermore, allowing local communities to define metrics of success and select useful research methodologies that honor indigenous ways of knowledge is both necessary and achievable to ensure the sustainability and efficacy of development projects. Lastly, revisiting the exclusionary and harmful policies of pay and benefit disparity for aid workers, credentialism, and tied aid practices that are rooted in colonial logics must be prioritized. While these are difficult tasks to accomplish, more coordinated efforts to decolonize development practice, increased representation, and changes in protocols that point in the direction of equity suggest that decolonization is possible. By incorporating aspirational goals of humble togetherness and mutual empowerment that are inspired by the indigenous framework of ubuntu, increasing local engagement, and unlearning the “master’s tools,” decolonization within the development sector is possible. 

About the author

Ryan Sutherland is a student at the Yale School of Medicine. Previously, he completed a Master of Public Health degree at the Yale School of Public Health in the Social and Behavioral Science Department with a concentration in Global Health and an MPhil in Development Studies as a Rotary Global Grant Scholar from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the intersection of international development and public health, centering on homelessness, substance use, refugee rights, and maternal and child health. 

Endnotes

  1. Perspectives on Inequality and Poverty in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Edited by Busani Mpofu and Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni. 1 ed.: Berghahn Books, 2019. doi:10.2307/j.ctv12pns07. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv12pns07; Langdon, Jonathan. "Decolonising Development Studies: Reflections on Critical Pedagogies in Action." Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'études du développement 34, no. 3, Sep 1, 2013, pp. 384-99.

  2. Spiegel, Samuel, Hazel Gray, Barbara Bompani, Kevin Bardosh, and James Smith. "Decolonising Online Development Studies? Emancipatory Aspirations and Critical Reflections – a Case Study." Third World Quarterly 38, no. 2, Feb 1, 2017, pp. 270-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2016.1256767.

  3. Kohn, Margaret, and Kavita Reddy. "Colonialism." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 29 Aug. 2017. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/; O’Dowd, Mary Frances, and Robyn Heckenberg. “Explainer: What Is Decolonisation?” The Conversation, June 22, 2020. https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-decolonisation-131455.

  4. Memmi, Albert, Jean-Paul Sartre, Susan Gilson Miller, and Howard Greenfeld. The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991; Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan S. Turner. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. vol xi, 2006, pp. 484; Strausz-Hupé, Robert, and Harry W. Hazard. The Idea of Colonialism. Foreign Policy Research Institute Series. New York: Praeger, 1958. 

  5. O’Dowd and Heckenberg; Peace Direct, Adeso, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security. “Time to Decolonise Aid: Insights and Lessons from a Global Consultation. Peace Direct, 2020. https://www.peacedirect.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/PD-Decolonising-Aid-Report.pdf. 

  6. Sultana, Farhana. “Decolonizing Development Education and the Pursuit of Social Justice.” Human Geography volume 12, no. 3 (November 1, 2019): 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/194277861901200305. 

  7. Leach, Melissa, FBA. “What Is Development Studies?” The British Academy, February 20, 2020. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/what-is-development-studies/; Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. xvi, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 366.

  8. Development Studies Association of Australia. “What is Development Studies?” DSAA. September 10, 2021. https://www.developmentstudies.asn.au/what-we-do/about/.

  9. Melkote, Srinivas, and H. Leslie Steeves. "Communication in International Development." Oxford University Press, June 25, 2018. https://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-671.

  10. Langdon.

  11. Pailey, Robtel Neajai. "De-Centring the ‘White Gaze’ of Development." Development and Change vol. 51, no. 3, October 1, 2019, pp. 729-45. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12550.

  12. Ogude, James. “The Meaning and Value of Ubuntu in Human and Social Development in Africa.” Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc., 2022. https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/projects-database/meaning-and-value-ubuntu-human-and-social-development-africa; Britzman, Deborah P. Lost Subjects, Contested Objects: Toward a Psychoanalytic Inquiry of Learning. Albany: State University of New York Press, viii, 1998, pp. 199.

  13. Stanlake, J. T, and Tommie M. Samkange. "Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwe Indigenous Political Philosophy." Salisbury: Graham Pub, 1980. https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4272&context=sspapers&httpsredir=1&referer#:~:text=Ubuntu%20can%20best%20be%20described,ngumuntu%20ngabantu%20in%20Zulu%20language. 

  14. Swanson, Dalene M. "Ubuntu: An African Contribution to (Re)Search for/with a ‘Humble Togetherness’." Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education 2, no. 2 (2008). https://doi.org/10.20355/c5pp4x.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Tavernaro-Haidarian, Leyla. "Why Efforts to Decolonise Can Deepen Coloniality and What Ubuntu Can Do to Help." Critical Arts volume 32, no. 5-6 , Nov 2, 2018, pp. 104-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2018.1560341.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Sultana.

  20. Sandel, Michael J. The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? Business Book Summary. First edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.

  21. Byatnal, Amruta. “Deep Dive: Decolonizing Aid — from Rhetoric to Action.” Devex, August 27, 2021. https://www.devex.com/news/deep-dive-decolonizing-aid-from-rhetoric-to-action-100646.

  22. Cusicanqui, Silvia Rivera. "Ch'ixinakax Utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization." South Atlantic Quarterly vol 111, no. 1, 2012, pp. 95-109. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-1472612; Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. "Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor." Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society vol 1, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1-40. https://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdf.

  23. Cheney, Catherine. “How Funders Can Drive More Money to African Entrepreneurs.” Devex, May 3, 2021. https://www.devex.com/news/how-funders-can-drive-more-money-to-african-entrepreneurs-99697.

  24. Ibid.

  25.  Riffaud, Jean-François. “Diversity and Domination: For a Paradigm Shift in International Aid.” ID4D, June 17, 2021. https://ideas4development.org/en/diversity-domination-change-international-aid/.

  26. Morris, Lucy, and Andres Gomez De La Torre. “How to Decolonise International Development: Some Practical Suggestions | From Poverty to Power,” Oxfam. December 18, 2020. https://frompoverty.oxfam.org.uk/how-to-decolonise-international-development-some-practical-suggestions/.

  27. Ibid.

  28. “A Window of Opportunity: Learning from Covid-19 to Progress Locally Led Response and Development Think Piece” Australian Red Cross, Humanitarian Advisory Group and the Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, Nov. 2022, https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/A-Window-of-Opportunity-COVID-think-piece-24-November-2020.pdf

  29. Fanon, Frantz, and Ralph Ellison Collection (Library of Congress). The Wretched of the Earth. New York,: Grove Press, 1965, pp. 255; Morris and Gomez de la Torre.

  30. Johnson, Jay T., Richard Howitt, Gregory Cajete, Fikret Berkes, Renee Pualani Louis, and Andrew Kliskey. "Weaving Indigenous and Sustainability Sciences to Diversify Our Methods." Sustainability Science vol 11, no. 1 Jan. 1, 2016, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0349-x. 

  31. Memmi et al.

  32. Morris and Gomez de la Torre; Igoe, Michael. “Devex Newswire: What It Will Actually Take to Decolonize Global Development.” Devex, May 11, 2021. https://www.devex.com/news/devex-newswire-what-it-will-actually-take-to-decolonize-global-development-99878.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Elias, Sean, and Joe R. Feagin. Systemic Racism and the White Racial Frame. Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Racisms. New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. https://www.mhanational.org/sites/default/files/Systemic%20Racism%20and%20White%20Racial%20Frame%20(1).pdf.

  35. Ronald Slye. “Socio-Economic Rights and the South African Transition: The Role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” 1 Law Democracy & Dev, 1997, pp. 137-159. https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty/662.

  36. Short C. “Cutting Edge Issues in Development - What’s Wrong with Aid?” London School of Economics. October 27, 2021. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/internationaldevelopment/2021/10/27/cutting-edge-issues-in-development-whats-wrong-with-aid/.

  37. Kertman, Matt. "Do What I Say, Not What I Do: Decolonizing Language in International Development." Journal of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Jun 23, 2021. https://jpia.princeton.edu/news/do-what-i-say-not-what-i-do-decolonizing-language-international-development.

  38. Thomas, Catherine, Nicholas P. Otis, Justin Jacob Abraham, Hazel Rose Markus, and Gregory M. Walton. “Toward a Science of Delivering Aid with Dignity: Experimental Evidence and Local Forecasts from Kenya.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 117, no. 27, June 24, 2020, pp. 15546-53. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917046117.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Wilson, Woodrow and Jackson Gallagher. "I Must Not Make Assumptions." Live Below the Line AU, 19 Mar. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qEDFy94zhU&ab_channel=LiveBelowtheLin.

  41. Adebisi, Foluke Ifejola. “Why I Say ‘Decolonisation Is Impossible.’” Foluke’s African Skies, December 17, 2019. https://folukeafrica.com/why-i-say-decolonisation-is-impossible/.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Nnodim Opara, Ijeoma, MD. “It’s Time to Decolonize the Decolonization Movement - Speaking of Medicine and Health.” Speaking of Medicine and Health, July 29, 2021. https://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2021/07/29/its-time-to-decolonize-the-decolonization-movement/.

  44. “Global Terminology Considerations,” Aug. 8, 2022. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/equity/guide/global-term.html.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Thiong’o, Ngugi Wa. "Decolonizing the Mind: State of the Art." Présence africaine vol 1, 2018, pp. 97-102. https://www.uibk.ac.at/anglistik/staff/davis/decolonising-the-mind.pdf.

  47. Hinane El Kadi, T. “Decolonising Development Studies.” London School of Economics, July 10, 2019. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/11/27/decolonising-development-studies/

  48. Ibid.

  49. Loffeld, T. “The Term "Beneficiaries" No Longer Used?” WildHub, January 20, 2023. https://wildhub.community/posts/the-term-beneficiaries-no-longer-used.

  50. Morris and Gomez de la Torre.

  51. Khan, G. Lighting Tomorrow. Annual Report presented to AngloGold Ashanti Limited (December 2017).

  52. Baud, Michiel, Fábio de Castro, and Barbara Hogenboom. Environmental Governance in Latin America. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gdcebookspublic.2020719503; Kothari, Brij. "Theoretical Streams in Marginalized Peoples' Knowledge(s): Systems, Asystems, and Subaltern Knowledge(s)." Agriculture and Human Values vol 19, no. 3, 2002, pp. 225-237. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/theoretical-streams-marginalized-peoples/docview/214185197/se-2.

  53. Freire, Paulo, and Myra B. Ramos. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970. Cited in: Sultana F. “Reflexivity, Positionality and Participatory Ethics: Negotiating Fieldwork Dilemmas in International Research.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies. vol 6 no. 3, 2007, pp. 374-85.

  54. hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. (New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 216.

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  60. Moyo, Dambisa. Dead Aid : Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. 1st American ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009 pp. 188.

  61. Ibid.

  62. "World's Wealthiest Increasingly Putting National Interest before Altruism When Allocating Aid." ODI, 2020, https://odi.org/en/press/worlds-wealthiest-increasingly-putting-national-interest-before-altruism-when-allocating-aid/.

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  73. Ibid.

  74. Sultana.

ArticleYale Journal of International AffairsDevelopment, Spring 2023