Social Workers Navigating a Colonial Bureaucratic System While Also Re-Kindling Obuntu-Led Relational Social Work in Uganda

Abstract

Diverse contexts present to us diverse philosophies on being and knowing, which would inform diverse but equally valid ways of constructing social work around the world. However, due to enlightenment modernity and Western colonialism, social work remains resistant to embracing this diversity as, often uncritically, a social work defined from a privileged white Western perspective is imposed. The purpose of this chapter is to disrupt ongoing colonization in social work: reclaim and theorize social work as conceptualized from Obuntu/Ubuntu philosophies central in most African Bantu communities. Obuntu or Ubuntu, as it is used in different African languages, defines what being human (person/omuntu) entails including embracing values like interconnectedness, collectivism, solidarity, caring for and about others, and the environment. This chapter will first explore experiences of social workers as they navigate a colonial bureaucracy, with frustrations forcing them to re-kindle indigenous models of social work. Implications for social work in Uganda and Australian contexts are then discussed.