Volunteer that makes a difference or difference that makes a volunteer? : A study on the apprehension of roles and functions of European volunteers in Ghana

Sammanfattning: Westerners have for centuries been present in Africa with different motives. The most recent phenomenon is young volunteers that, instead of being tourists in a normal sense, go to the continent to work within organizations as for example teachers. This study, where the empirical material is based on qualitative interviews done with twelve European volunteers during a minor field study in Ghana, aims to examine what apprehension the volunteers have of their role and function. To create an understanding for the purpose, questions on the meaning of the concept of volunteering, motives and outcomes of the volunteering experience as well as the view of westerners and Ghanaians have been asked. In the light of postcolonialism and volunteer tourism, the study shows a number of factors that explains motives and the understanding of the concept, with a focus on the learning and growth of the volunteer. The outcome circles around knowledge on development issues and aid work as well as being able to have an impact on Ghanaians and development in Ghana. The volunteers also show revulsion from other westerners (that want to “help” and have a “colonial” behavior) and Ghanaians, but at the same time they prefer to spend time with westerners. The volunteers’ apprehension of their role and function is found to be bipartite; expressed is that they are in Ghana to experience and to learn, but understood is also that they see it as their task to spread their view of life, help the locals and contribute to development. A possible explanation to this contradiction might be that the volunteers, grown up in a time where they have been taught “how they should think” about “Us” and “Them”, distance themselves from everything that disaffirm their belief. However, at the same time they are deeply influenced by the western society’s way of focusing on differences between people, differences with signatures such as “developed” and “underdeveloped”. It creates a complexity of knowing something but not being able to live by it.