Contributors to this page:
- Phyllis Mubanga
Names of social work
- Nchito za Anthu
- Kutusa Ba botana
Social work training institutions
- University of Zambia, Department of Social Work and Sociology
- Mulungushi University, School of Social Sciences
History of social services and social work
The Oppenheimer College of Social Service (now Ridgeway Campus) was opened in 1962, and started with a 3-year diploma programme. At this point, in many countries, training was offered in social services or social science and not social work as presently. The methods of social work that were taught were casework, group work, community work and fieldwork. Students were mainly mature, with experience in social problems. The fight for independence was worn in 1964, and the government of Kenneth Kaunda embarked on improving social services, including higher education. The University of Zambia (first university in the country) was founded 2 years later. The Oppenheimer College became a department of the new university. The social service program now included a four year degree. However, improvements in education resulted in more younger university students who did not have experience of social problems, and as Brown (1971) said, the younger students were coming from boarding schools or from well to do urban families, and they were ‘…unrelated to, and often unaware of, the background of those who sought help. Not only did they lack life experiences of use in training, but also the methods of education in many schools had encouraged a spoon-feeding attitude to learning’ (p. 43). Brown further made remarks that are essential for today’s decolonization agenda. These remarks are quoted below:
“Social work must be related to the task of social development, that is,. assisting people to take advantage of and facilitate the multiple changes in the nation., which are too frequently seen in terms of economic development alone. In Zambia, change involves the effects of urbanization, the erosion of the extended family structure, the role of women and a whole range of attitudes and beliefs.
The Oppenheimer Department shares with the profession and the employing agencies responsibility for the development of Zambian social work, responsive to Zambian problems which have to be tackled within the present Zambian situation.
Such social work has to be related to the Zambian past, firmly committed to finding solutions to present problems, and maturely involved in development for the future”, (1971, p. 47).
Kenneth Buchizya Kaunda’s contribution to the philosophy of African humanism (ubuntu) and pan-African theory
Social work in Zambia – Report from Association of Social Work Education in Africa (ASWEA) meetings
“In the curriculum survey (ASWEA, 1974b), Zambia offered a one-year certificate in community development that began in 1960 at the local college as well as a four-year Bachelor of Social Work at the University of Zambia that started in 1965. The Second National Development Plan (SNDP) of Zambia (1972–1976) included a chapter on social development with educational goals including: (i) self-sufficiency of the people implying the ‘decolonization of attitudes and requirements and the development of an Indigenous capacity to identify and solve problems’ (ASWEA, 1974a: 55); (ii) participatory democracy; (iii) village productivity committees; and (iv) participation in the continuing struggle for freedom in Africa through political and social citizen education (ASWEA, 1974a). In each of these areas, social workers had a role to play and, based on these goals, social work training in Zambia included: (i) supervised fieldwork with student involvement in village productivity committees (case studies for class use came from these committees); (ii) group work; (iii) conferences and meetings to examine how traditional problem-solving methods might be used more effectively so that cultural differences and controversies might be minimized; and (iv) curriculum review to encourage interdisciplinary and team teaching. This attempt to integrate national planning goals with the social work curriculum aimed to better equip Zambian social workers to interpret and respond to social problems in a developmental way. In 1982, the university had a more extensive four-year Bachelor of Social Work that included more content on Zambian society and rural sociology”.
Cite: Association of Social Work Education in Africa (ASWEA) (1989). Report. Addis Ababa, ASWEA.
or Kreitzer, L. (2013). Decolonizing Social Work Education in Africa: A Historical Perspective Gray, M., Coates, J., Hetherington, T., & Yellow Bird, M. (2013). Decolonizing social work. Burlington: Ashgate.
Roles of a professional body or association of social workers
- Creating a code of ethics relevant to Africa: To create a code of ethics guided by African values that have been used to provide social services since time immemorial.
- Societal recognition: make social work known in families and communities including what social work is in local language, the roles of social workers and how the complement not replace or compete with the roles of families and communities. Presently, in most African communities, social work is not understood and at times it is hated because of its focus on western ideas, knowledge, philosophy, theories, methods and literature.
- Creating a local definition of social work: to help social work being understood and appreciated. Definitions in local languages will be more useful.
- Creating relevance: making social work in Africa more developmental to enable it to respond to the social issues, challenges and problems on the continent. Social work has to respond to mass poverty in a developmental not remedial way.
- Professional recognition: To raise social work to the level of other professions, and to give social workers respect and recognition of their service.
- Professional regulation: Ensure that social workers follow ethical principles that make them accountable for any professional misconduct, breach of ethics or confidentiality.
- Professional standards: To oversee social worker’s performance, attitude towards families, communities, peers, profession and the society. This builds trust and ensures credibility of social work.
- Training monitoring: To monitor social work training and fieldwork.
- Produce literature: To research, write and publish relevant literature for social work training and fieldwork.
- Advocacy: To advocate for social justice and social services.
- Continuous training: To lead continuous professional development (CPD) of social workers and all people providing social services. This is important especially for social workers trained in the colonial period, those trained using colonial syllabus or those trained outside Africa.
- Supporting and empowering indigenous services: To support families and communities in their roles of providing social services and not disempower them.
- Trade unionism: Act as the trade union of social workers to represent their interests and labour rights as workers, entrepreneurs, volunteers and social innovators.
- Consumerism: protect families, communities and employers from poor services from social workers, receiving complaints and dealing with them.
- Collaboration with other associations: Work and collaborate with other professional bodies in the country, in the region, in Africa and globally.
- Policy work: Creating policies or alternative policies to advance social development and to scrutinize existing policies of the government.
- Recognising social workers: Celebrate social workers through national social work day, global social work day and providing awards to social workers, students, academics and social work organisations.
- Networking: providing opportunities for social workers to network, share experiences and listen to others through indaba, conference, webinar, newsletters, journals, websites, social media e.g. groups of Facebook or WhatsApp, dinner etc
- Decolonising: To decolonise social work to make it relevant to Africa communities, this work involves, among others
- Using African philosophy, including values, ethics, theories, models etc
- Using African ethics and removing colonial ethics
- Using African literature and removing colonial literature
- Using African academics and replacing non-African academics
- Using a home grown syllabus, and replace colonial syllabus – in the process avoid brain drain
- Using and valuing African methods, techniques and strategies of social work and not non-African methods
- Valuing African history of social work and Africans who have contributed to that history
- Contributing African knowledge and methods to global social work and not just receiving global knowledge without scrutiny
- To educate families, communities, organisations and government about how to remove colonial practices, methods, knowledge etc from the social work services that they provide
- Generally, make African social work more developmental in approach so that the profession becomes relevant to our families, communities, organisations and government
Please provide additional information about social services and social work in this country
Use the form below to add details about this country. The following details can be added: names of social work training institutions, history of social work, details of founders or prominent people in social work and names of social work association or council.