Afrocentric Feminism and Ubuntu-Led Social Work Practice in an African Context

Abstract

The roles of both feminism and social work in Africa for Africans remain contested to date. Feminism is often positioned as a western ideology, while social work is criticised for the underlying whitewashed knowledge it inculcates in both students and practitioners. Without proper contextualisation and theorisation, both feminism and social work can function as colonising agents which do more harm than good in the African context. We theorise African feminism as an Afrocentric framework that centres African knowledge, theories, practices and ways of being, doing and knowing. We articulate the African feminist role in social work practice in Africa while also problematising the epistemological contradiction it presents. Afrocentric feminism is a collection of multiple knowledges that are focused on returning to our forgotten and often marginalised ways of being, doing and knowing and reclaiming a somehow lost or disfigured identity which was and is continually altered by colonialism and its ever-lingering presence in Africa.