--- title: 'Savior Complex' Revisits the Case of Renee Bach: TV Review description: The HBO docuseries uncovers the racially charged hubris of well-meaning, white, often evangelical Americans in Africa. canonical: https://time.com/6317172/savior-complex-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-09-26T14:33:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:00.581Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Savior Complex' Indicts American White Supremacy in Africa og:description: The HBO docuseries uncovers the racially charged hubris at the heart of missionary Renee Bach's harrowing story og:url: https://time.com/6317172/savior-complex-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392a4fcfe7d1c4b4/698a40b3b3fce3bb480cadbc/savior-complex_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: savior-complex_0 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Savior Complex' Indicts American White Supremacy in Africa twitter:description: The HBO docuseries uncovers the racially charged hubris at the heart of missionary Renee Bach's harrowing story twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392a4fcfe7d1c4b4/698a40b3b3fce3bb480cadbc/savior-complex_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # HBO's _Savior Complex_ Indicts the White Supremacy of American Do-Gooders in Africa > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Sep 26, 2023 2:33 PM UTC  Renee Bach, center, with Constance Alonyo, right, in Savior Complex Renee Bach, center, with Constance Alonyo, right, in Savior ComplexMarshall Foster—HBO  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Sep 26, 2023 2:33 PM UTC In 2019, a devastating news story ricocheted around the digital-media echo chamber. As [one headline](https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/renee-bach-pretended-to-be-a-doctor-in-uganda-lawsuit.html) summarized it: “American Woman Accused of Letting Hundreds of Ugandan Kids Die at a Fake Clinic.” Her name was Renée Bach, and she faced a lawsuit on behalf of two [Ugandan](https://time.com/tag/uganda/) mothers who alleged that their children died after being treated at a malnutrition clinic where Bach practiced medicine without a license. (The case was [settled](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/31/897773274/u-s-missionary-with-no-medical-training-settles-suit-over-child-deaths-at-her-ce) in 2020.) The three-part HBO docuseries _Savior Complex_—premiering Sept. 26, with the remaining two episodes set to air the following night—revisits the thorny affair, previously dissected by [_The New Yorker_](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/13/a-missionary-on-trial)and in the podcast _The Missionary_, adding updates, on-camera interviews, and nuance without sacrificing accountability. Filmmaker Jackie Jesko’s disinclination to paint Bach as a bloodthirsty butcher or her detractors as heroic racial-justice crusaders is sure to rankle some viewers. But what emerges instead are revelations more astute and more disturbing, forged in a crucible of race, religion, money, and global politics. A high school graduate with no formal medical training, Bach founded the charitable organization Serving His Children as a 19-year-old missionary in 2009\. In its early years, the clinic didn’t employ any doctors. Eyewitnesses assert that Bach administered IVs, prescribed medicine, and even, on at least one occasion, performed a blood transfusion. Footage that situates the subject in her small Virginia hometown, gently caring for her two daughters, sits unsettlingly beside the delusions and evasions of a sort of missionary [Elizabeth Holmes](https://time.com/4298885/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-investigation/).  Primah Kwagala in Savior Complex HBO That a white, college-aged American woman was allowed to play doctor, with a stethoscope slung around her neck, in her own unlicensed African clinic is self-evidently infuriating. But what Jesko uncovers isn’t the individual malice of a typical true-crime psychopath. It’s something more frightening in its tenacity: the collective, racially charged hubris of well-meaning, white, often evangelical Americans in Africa. One image used to promote Serving His Children shows Bach standing with her head serenely bowed and her arms outstretched, lit like Jesus in a Renaissance painting. Interviewees recall her overruling treatment plans made by credentialed Ugandan medical staff. The irony is that Bach's main foe, a self-described “white savior in recovery” who co-founded a group called No White Saviors, also starts to look pretty self-serving. Each woman seems less motivated by a genuine desire to help starving children than by a compulsion to bolster her own messianic self-image. Both capitalize on their status as white Westerners in a poor, Black society. _Savior complex_ isn’t just a diagnosis. Like the military-industrial complex, it’s a system that reinforces entrenched power structures. When _Savior Complex_ does identify heroes, they’re the kind who rarely make headlines stateside: Ugandan doctors, social workers, activists. People doing their best to serve their communities without the funds Americans can easily raise—and would do better to humbly contribute to under-resourced local change makers. In a refreshing contrast to the white saviors, the Ugandan human rights lawyer who represented the mothers, Primah Kwagala, explains why she doesn’t let her own ambitions detract from her clients’ needs: “Even if I want to have cases to my name and precedents lined up before me, I’m not the one that lost kids here.” For as long as Westerners use African poverty as a means to personal fulfillment, _no white saviors_ will be an empty slogan. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6317172/savior-complex-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6317172/savior-complex-review/"},"headline":"HBO's Savior Complex Indicts the White Supremacy of American Do-Gooders in Africa","datePublished":"2023-09-26T14:33:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:00.581Z","description":"The HBO docuseries uncovers the racially charged hubris of well-meaning, white, often evangelical Americans in Africa.","url":"https://time.com/6317172/savior-complex-review/","keywords":["Television","review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392a4fcfe7d1c4b4/698a40b3b3fce3bb480cadbc/savior-complex_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt392a4fcfe7d1c4b4/698a40b3b3fce3bb480cadbc/savior-complex_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"savior-complex_0","caption":"Renee Bach, center, with Constance Alonyo, right, in Savior Complex","creditText":"Marshall Foster—HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6317172/savior-complex-review/","name":"HBO's Savior Complex Indicts the White Supremacy of American Do-Gooders in Africa"}}]}] ```