A Social Work Vision for Tanzania

Abstract

A social work vision can have a significant contribution to promoting human welfare and social change and challenging oppression. Tanzania is offered as an example of how this contribution can be made in a context of major political, social and economic change and widespread poverty. A social work vision for a developing country such as Tanzania needs to build on the strengths of the social work profession and its context and maximize ways to overcome limitations. It should emphasize process more than plan, such as the importance of partnership as citizens, caring without oppression, critical reflection in the profession, building supportive networks and coalitions and increasing moral agency.

Social Work in Ghana: A Participatory Action Research Project Looking at Culturally Appropriate Training and Practice

“…For some, western education was deemed inadequate and inappropriate for dealing with the consequences of colonialism, poverty, government corruption, religious practices and other philosophical orientations. Many non-western social workers learned theories and methodologies alien to their cultures and encountered the additional burden of adapting these to their own country situation (Midgley, 1981;Venkataraman, 1996;Nimmagadda & Cowger, 1999;Kaseke, 2001;Burke & Ngonyani, 2004). Consequently, some social work programmes shed western-based curriculum for curriculum more appropriate to the needs of their country.…”

Developing a social work curriculum on political conflict: findings from an IASSW-funded project

“…Radical social work perspectives have long continued to call for recognition of the political nature of social work and for the profession to engage in political issues that address the underlying causes of oppression (Corrigan & Leonard, 1979;Craig, 2002) and political conflicts between different social factions (Burke & Ngonyani, 2004;Laird, 2004;Midgley, 1997;Mmatli, 2008;Shawky, 1972). 'Political' understanding and engagement takes a variety of forms including raising awareness and struggling against some of the socio/geo-political and economic issues pertinent to the social work profession: the role of neo-liberal capitalism on local, national and global relationships between 'First' and 'Third' world; the impact of globalisation and occupation on democracy, identity and culture (Amin, 2001;Sewpaul, 2006;Smith, 2008); issues of human rights, sexual orientation and genocide, violence (Kabeera & Sewpaul, 2008) and displacement in the context of political conflict (Hölscher & Berhane, 2008) are but a few areas of concern.…”

New Directions in African Education

“…(Jagusah, 2001, p. 123) Although the idea of social working in Nigeria and other African countries predates colonialism, formal social work packaged as a profession with well-articulated theories began with colonization and, in some countries, after independence (Adepoju, 1974, cited in Odiah, 1991. Burke and Ngonyani (2004) point out that historically, in Africa, social welfare needs were more commonly met using resources within the community at different levels -the tribe, clan, and family systems. Odiah (1991) notes that "kinship system in the traditional Nigerian society provided for family welfare, child welfare, health, mental health, care for the aged, informal education, recreation, social planning and development" (p. 11).…”

“…Today, in Nigeria and many other African countries, social work is not well-recognized or valued as a profession (Burke and Ngonyani, 2004). This may be related to the fact that Nigeria has no formal social welfare system, making it difficult if not impossible for social workers to draw on any resources to assist clients whose problems are often related to or compounded by poverty.…”