Decolonising social work fields of practice : an introduction

Different concepts have been used in this debate, including indigenisation, authentication, decolonisation, and reconfiguration of social work, among others. Theorising from Ubuntu can influence and be the foundation for social work knowledge, social work values and ethics, social work research and policy and Ubuntu informing different fields of social work practice like social work with older people, poverty alleviation, work with refugees and environmental justice, among others. The growing interest and scholarship on decolonisation and indigenisation of professions such as social work has been sanctioned by these profession's historical roots in the West and their spread through colonialism. Hence, decolonising and indigenising social work fields of practice is a quest for relevance as aptly phrased by Mupedziswa. Epistemic racism manifests where knowledges and ways of knowing and being of people that have experienced colonisation remain marginalised, invalidated, mis(under)represented while knowledges of the colonisers are established as legitimate.