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Commentary

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The Christian Church & the INGO – The late 20 century’s new colonists
NGO

‘especially through their role in International Aid -only 2.1% of global funding goes directly to civil
society in the Global South. The remaining 97.9% goes to International organisations who then
sub-contract 87% of project delivery to civil society in the Global South’

INGO come to help but they never go home. Every African ‘crisis’ attracts more of them.

Increasingly becoming more like business corporations and becoming more dependent on
funding by governments, they are now more likely to be seen as just another arm of a

donor nation’s government.
The colonisation that followed the 19 century Scramble for Africa led to colonial
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administrations whose focus was directed towards fulfilling the expectations of their

mother country. And those needs were all about extraction and exploitation. Read the
comments made by UK politicians at the time of FCDO and you will a theme of ‘self-

interest’. And ‘arguments’ based on the use of INGO as a tool of UK government policy.
As INGO become more and more an arm of m’zungu donor nation government policy,

are they not simply another form of colonisation?

The legacy INGO should always work for is to leave behind a locally sustainable
infrastructure. Are they doing that? How many have been able to say ‘mission

accomplished’? Time for us to leave?

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The m’zungu Christian Church
“When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They
said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they

had the land.”

Desmond Tutu

The m’zungu Christian church has long been understood as having played a fundamental
role in the late 19 and early 20 century colonisation process.
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The Church of England attracts slightly over a million active worshipers and this figure

has been falling for many years. Africa is said to have 380 million Christians and
projections suggest this will become 600-700 million by mid-21 century. The Church of
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