Africa and the Digital Savior Complex

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of ‘digital humanitarianism’ that originates in and is practiced by the international community, and has found particular impetus through the ways in which it has engaged African people, places, and issues. Digital humanitarianism presents new technological approaches to ameliorate humanitarian work but I argue that there has emerged a ‘Digital Savior Complex’ which not only transforms complex crises into quotidian cyber realities but also furthers existing colonial hierarchies between the savior and the saved. The article argues that the Save Darfur movement was, in fact, the first example of the Digital Savior Complex in action. However, the unfair representations it tends to foreground have not gone unnoticed by a particularly influential Africa-centric digital media. I draw attention to the attempts to push back at the Digital Savior Complex by using the example of Kony 2012, a case that proved to be an effective unmasking of the modes of digital solidarity that were hitherto unchecked. This enabled an epistemic and discursive shift in the conversation about the misrepresentation of Africa and Africans, and insisted on corrective, resistant and decolonized approaches to depict and reflect upon events on the continent.

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