I want to help: “Why don’t you ask the people you’re trying to save what it is that they need?”

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

Following on Teju Cole, I think that as an African in the diaspora, whose goal is an attempt to also contribute to the development of Botswana, my country that I’ve not lived in for 13 years, I should tread carefuly to avoid perpetuating the White Saviour Industrial Complex. I think white in this instance is not about race, but whiteness, the ideology, that the west is the best.

How can I tread carefully? I think herein lies the answer:

Attending the 2019 ex-migrant miners and beneficiaries’ Kgotla meeting organised by the Botswana Labour Migrants Association (BoLAMA) in Kanye, my interaction with some of the ex-miners, testimonies of some of the ex-miners themselves and their widows, guided my research study. Initially, though unfolding, I only had an interest in ‘simply’ documenting the ex-miners’ general experiences in the South African Mines. However, when they eloquently shared their experiences: both in the mines when they were working and the difficulties they encountered to access social security benefits after the mines, I could not stop to think that at the root of their problems (in the mines and after) was racial injustice: the deliberate racist policies and practices of the apartheid system.

In short, working closely with BoLAMA, an organisation “comprised of ex-miners and their beneficiaries” which has been doing grassroots work by directly providing assistance to ex-miners to access social security benefits. And listening to both the ex-migrant miners and their beneficiaries, together, we can put pressure on the government and other stakeholders to assist ex-miners and their families. God willing.

I don’t want to be a person who “supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening”.