Decolonizing Global Development Theory and Practice through “Centering” the Work of Robtel Neajai Pailey

Abstract

This essay discusses the contributions of Robtel Neajai Pailey, a Liberian scholar and activist, to the decolonization movement within global development. Some of Pailey’s scholarship centers on directly critiquing the “White Gaze” of development. She points to how development practice and scholarship remain beholden to Western, White knowledge and power dynamics. For this reason, Pailey urges both scholars and practitioners to reverse the White gaze of development. Pailey does this with her scholarship on Liberia. She also offers ideas for practitioners. The essay concludes with how Christian scholars and practitioners might engage with the decolonialization movement.