We’ve all seen them, over and over again: pictures of malnourished, barefoot children in a dirt road background, "somewhere in Africa." Such images either pull at our heartstrings and compel us to help, to “save,” or we dismiss them as generic images of Africa.

These images are so ingrained in our imagination, most people that haven’t been to the continent believe that all of Africa looks like this, adding to the colonialist generalisation of Africa as “one country.”

Fundraising campaigns and tourist photography fuel our imagery of Africa creating a Western consensus that poor Africa "needs saving." Like there is no difference between countries and issues as if all of Africa’s children are poor and hungry.

Now envision that image and add a white person in the middle of all these children, who despite their poverty and diseases are laughing, because having a white person around makes life so much better. Such images are often reproduced by voluntourists.

Voluntourism photography

Voluntourism is the combination of volunteering and tourism, and it has grown increasingly popular as a way to explore new cultures and contribute to sustainable change in communities.

We all know someone who went to Africa or Southeast Asia and took those generic pictures of a bunch of poor children laughing and smiling at the camera. The Onion published a mocking remark on this topic: “As soon as I walked into that dusty, remote town and the smiling children started coming up to me, I just knew my Facebook profile photo would change forever.”