ABSTRACT
This contribution focuses on the important role mission narratives have played in shaping economic and cultural interventions in the postcolonial world and especially on their ongoing role and influence on development narratives for modern NGOs operating in Africa. I also want to consider the similarities and differences between these two external institutional practices: the religious mission and the development agency. The arguments have wider application, and scholarly searches reveal similar relations in other parts of the postcolonial world. I limit myself to Africa for two reasons: firstly, because this has been the principal focus of my archival research; and, secondly, because the case of Africa offers one of the most glaring examples of how these narratives continue to shape contemporary representations of the so-called developed world and the role in this process of the non-government institutions of global power (the so-called NGOs). 1
