‘Strike a Pose’: Lessons from Anticolonial Theology for Dismantling Faith-Based Development

This article responds to ongoing conversations on the decolonisation of international development, with special reference to faith-based, Christian international organisations. This article argues the case for such INGOs to draw from anticolonial thought and anticolonial theological spaces in order to dismantle their foundational colonial and institutional logics. The title of the paper is taken from a sentiment articulated by the Brazilian ecofeminist theologian Ivone Gebara who argues that in order to dismantle such logics, we have to take on a critical political posture that is anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-elitist. What does it mean for Christian INGOs to take on this pose? I argue that we can draw from the broader concepts of anticolonial thinking and theology to provide guidance. In particular, the paper argues that faith-based INGOs can shift to be more explicitly social movements than international organisations, that they draw from a multi-centric knowledge base, centring techniques of storytelling, and also look to embrace and learn from liberation movements of the past. There is, of course, no specific toolkit or blueprint, but doing this work of dismantling necessitates a commitment to a complex and nuanced process, encompassing relationality, sharing, reciprocity, collective responsibility, mutual interdependence, community building, ethics, responsibility, and accountability.