Spirit of Development

This work is an ethnographic account of the work of transnational, Christian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe. Religious NGOs are one of the voices of pluralism in southern Africa, sometimes challenging the state and at others collaborating with it. The tensions of such engagement are key to understanding the successes and failures of transnational, humanitarian endeavours to foster democratic governance in Zimbabwe. While much scholarship has been focused, theoretically, on the role of NGOs in democratisation in Africa regarding international foreign policy, few studies offer empirically grounded insights into how transnational NGOs operate. The Spirit of Development addresses, ethnographically, how an American discourse of Christian humanitarianism transforms and is transformed by, local settings.