Key concepts in harambe and social development
Harambee: a societal value of collective action in which people come together as a whole society to address shared challenges and pursue common goals.
Uharambee: the internalised value of prizing society, equated in this course with social development, since it describes the collective pursuit of societal wellbeing.
Social development: a structural approach to development that secures access to basic needs, safeguards self-esteem, and advances social justice through collective action, Ubuntu values, policy, structures and institutions, rather than relying on economic growth alone.
Harambe social development model: a society-first, Ubuntu based framework in which activity at any level counts as social development only if it serves the whole of society, tested through a three part criterion and a disqualifier, with economic growth understood as flowing from economic justice and collective effort, and rooted in orature before being formalised academically.
Society: the broadest human collective, the entire body of people who share a common political, institutional and structural existence, organised at kingdom, national, regional, continental or global level.
Community: a specific part of society, such as one or more villages, suburbs, towns or wards, operating at the meso level.
Micro level: case, family or household level social work practice.
Meso level: large group, clan, community or institutional level practice.
Macro level: whole of society level practice, the level at which harambee operates.
Mega level: environmental level
Meta level: spiritual level
African Social Development (ASD) Model: a framework addressing the historic neglect of the macro level in African social work, in favour of structural, policy-driven approaches to poverty.
Developmental Social Work (DSW): an approach that merges social intervention with economic development, treating public assistance as a stepping stone to economic activity rather than an end in itself.
To ground this African philosophy in contemporary systemic practice, this course integrates the ASD Model and the DSW Approach. Students will explore how the value of uharambee, understood as social development, provides the cultural and ethical framework needed to move away from Western modernisation paradigms, residual welfarism, and remedial micro interventions. The curriculum demonstrates how collective societal mobilisation drives structural social change, macro level policy reform, and integrated socio-economic development across Africa.