Volunteerism - an act of good will or a heritage of colonial power structures?: A qualitative study of sport volunteers at East Africa cup, their motivation and the applicability of "Western theory"

Abstract

East Africa cup is a youth sports tournament in Tanzania that gathers youth from several East African countries. The tournament is depending on volunteers to fill different positions. These volunteers are youth from different countries who have an engagement throughout the year in their local community. And through this engagement they get the opportunity to travel to Moshi, Tanzania to participate in the tournament. This is a qualitative study based on a fieldwork in Tanzania and Kenya. It makes use of semi-structured interviews and observation as methods. 16 volunteers were interviewed, and the observations took place during East Africa cup 2012. The study has two points of departure. First, I have looked at the motivation for engagement and what makes these young people spend a high amount of time in their organisations. What factors that motivate the volunteers at East Africa cup and how these volunteers can be linked to Hustinx ad Lammertyn’s (2003) framework on collective and reflexive volunteerism. The data indicate that the volunteers were motivated by three main factors: network building, capacity building and intrinsic motives. Secondly, the focus was on the use of Western developed literature in an East African or Tanzanian setting. Hustinx and Lammertyn’s (2003) framework on volunteerism in the late modern society was used as a starting point for a discussion were both modernity theory and postcolonial perspectives where used. The study indicates that some volunteers experience resistance from their family and friends regarding their choice to volunteer. This point, together with the difficulty recruiting and retaining volunteers, can indicate that there is little understanding for the volunteer phenomenon. In this light I discuss how the volunteer sport model is implemented at EAC. Key concepts in this connection are volunteerism, postcolonialism and culture.