»Nothing about us without us«

Abstract The phrase »nothing about us without us« arose within the disability movement in South Africa during the 1990s, but in recent years it has become a rallying cry beyond this movement for all who experience marginalization regarding issues that directly affect them. Inherent to this cry is the call for participation in the radical sense – that the voices of those most affected be centered in any discourses, policies or actions that relate to their situation, rather than the voices of those speaking on »behalf of« these marginalized groups and individuals. Such radical notions of participation argue that there is a kind of »ventriloquism« when those specifically in the Global North speak on behalf of those in the Global South and that this is interrelated with notions of neocolonialism and white supremacy enmeshed within diakonia and development praxis. In this article the author will seek to explore these entanglements and propose ways in which this can be engaged in the context of faith-based development praxis.