Influencing the de-colonisation of social work and social development through african indigenous knowledge systems
Introduction
African Indigenous knowledge can be defined as the knowledge that an indigenous community gains over generations of living in a particular environment. This includes all forms of knowledges, technologies, practises, values, and beliefs that enable the community to achieve stable livelihoods in their environment. African Indigenous knowledge systems (AIKS) help to shape and define societies’ existence and provides the foundation for African nation states beliefs and traditional practises. However, there remains limited emphasis on the body of knowledge around how to harness the knowledge systems. Indigenous knowledge systems are a key enabler of sustainable development for Global South countries and all indigenous peoples. Global South countries will not be able to realise their development goals without embracing indigenous knowledge systems. Indeed, local knowledge and approaches to social development have already yielded positive results in terms of tackling poverty and mitigating adverse impacts of climate change. These examples showcase what is possible when local contexts and thinking inform social development policy and practice.
Foregrounding local knowledge is also aligned with the decolonisation of knowledge and approaches to social development thinking and social work practice. Decolonisation is critical, relevant and provides a comprehensive understanding to the multiverse of the humanity of Africans in fully appreciating social development. The effort to reclaim as well as assert the sovereign power of Africans to self-determine in the aftermath of the invention of race, transatlantic slavery, and colonialism in its mutating forms, is imperative for social development (Ngwena, 2022).
The premise of decolonisation is one of critiquing existing power structures and dominant culture at multiple levels and IKS provide a basis for this interrogation.
We are excited to showcase how indigenous and local knowledge systems are disrupting dominant theories and practice in social development and social work, whilst working towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Through a partnership of four Universities namely, Midlands State University, University of Applied Science and Arts Dortmund, theUniversity of Johannesburg, and the University of KwaZulu Natal; and in partnership with the International Consortium on Social Development (ICSD) Africa Branch, the symposium will bring together social work practitioners, social development practitioners, policy makers, PhD and Masters students to showcase and critically engage with how indigenous and local knowledge systems can inform and influence efforts to achieve the SDGs.
The Objectives of the symposium are:
- To share experiences on African indigenous knowledge systems and how they are being used to contribute to social development and social work practice and the Sustainable Development Goals.
- To showcase examples of social development and social work practice using local and indigenous knowledge systems towards achieving SDGs.
- To highlight how indigenous knowledge systems are being used to challenge and adapt existing, dominant social development and social work theories.
- To discuss the effectiveness of current social work programs in applying indigenous knowledge systems in advancing social work
Symposium outcomes
At the conclusion of the symposium, it is anticipated that the participants will have:
- Developed strong interdisciplinary academic and practice networks in the field of social development on the continent.
- Been exposed to innovative examples of how IKS is being used to challenge dominant approaches to development and fostering the achievement of SDGs.
- Gained an enhanced understanding of how to use indigenous knowledge systems to advance social development and social work practice.
Participants
Participants will include students, social work and social development scholars and practitioners from across the continent and globe.
Please note that although the DAAD partnership is a social work focused partnership, the joint symposium with ICSD provides the opportunity to strengthen and build new partnerships in the continent of Africa. In addition, through participation in the symposium, we hope to provide the opportunity to boost the commitment and confidence of social workers and social development practitioners and to make a stronger contribution to Afrocentric practices and policy development. Abstracts are therefore invited from a wide range of disciplines including agriculture, development studies, economics, education, health, psychology, sociology, and social work as key stakeholders in the social development sector.
Cross cutting themes are climate justice, gender equality, Environmental justice, Sustainability and Governance (ESG)