Using locally based indigenous ideas to decolonise curriculums

My partnership with a charity and a university in Burundi is going from strength to strength as it helps enhance our social work programme through learning about the best practices of social workers in East Africa. This was demonstrated on a recent trip to visit Hope Africa University and the charity Social Action for Development in Burundi.

 

In early 2023 an International Association of Schools of social work event hosted at the University of Rwanda saw experts in social work meet to revamp the existing curriculum Experts-in-social-work-meet-to-revamp-existing-curriculum-to-fit-for-the-future . Burundian colleagues were part of this consultation in partnership with Oxford Brookes. The current global knowledge base for social work is dominated by White, Western, Eurocentric, and Global North perspectives on how Social work can be practiced effectively. Using locally based indigenous ideas to decolonise curriculums is an emerging subject area that goes beyond initiatives to decolonise the curriculum by celebrating local indigenised solutions to transform curriculums and social work practice of the future with some of society's most vulnerable service users, such as children exposed to abuse, and vulnerable adults, and women working in the sex trade.

Locally based concepts of such as bashingantahe, nawe nuze, and ikibiri all help to inspire a different way of thinking about solving problems. Bashingantahe relates to local leaders solving problems, which is often referred to as the chief or elders supporting the community to come together to solve a problem.  Nawe nuze translates to ‘you are also welcome’ which relates to women who have always brought themselves together and involve themselves in women empowerment groups. This has often started with an economic need but can also become supportive to social needs. Ikibiri refers to coming together for mutual aid which is often taught in secondary schools, and relates to concepts such as ibikorwa rusange where on a Saturday, local leaders support the community to get involved in community development tasks. 

You can read more on the inherent relationship between sustainability, indigenisation and decolonisation in this article

https://api.taylorfrancis.com/content/chapters/oa-edit/download?identifierName=doi&identifierValue=10.4324/9780367853785-2&type=chapterpdf

You can read more about bashingantahe, nawe nuze, and ikibiri in Learning from Ikibiri and Ubuntu to Decolonise Soical Work Research in Higher Education.)