Linda Kreitzer - Social Work in Africa: Exploring Culturally Relevant Education and Practice in Ghana

social work

in Africa

AFRICA: MISSING VOICES SERIES

Donald I. Ray, General Editor

ISSN 1703-1826

University of Calgary Press has a long history of publishing academic works on Africa.

Africa: Missing Voices illuminates issues and topics concerning Africa that have been ignored or are missing from current global debates. This series fills a gap in African scholarship by addressing concerns that have long been overlooked in political, social, and historical discussions about this continent.

No. 1 Grassroots Governance?: Chiefs in Africa and the Afro-Caribbean
Edited by D.I. Ray and P.S. Reddy Copublished with the International
Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA)

No. 2 The African Diaspora in Canada: Negotiating Identity and Belonging
Edited by Wisdom Tettey and Korbla Puplampu

No. 3 A Common Hunger: Land Rights in Canada and South Africa
By Joan G. Fairweather

No. 4 New Directions in African Education: Challenges and Possibilities
Edited by S. Nombuso Dlamini

No. 5 Shrines in Africa: History, Politics, and Society
Edited by Allan Charles Dawson

No. 6 The Land Has Changed: History, Society and Gender in Colonial Eastern Nigeria
By Chima J. Korieh

No. 7 African Wars: A Defense Intelligence Perspective
By William G. Thom

No. 8 Reinventing African Chieftaincy in the Age of AIDS, Gender, Governance, and Development
Edited by Donald I. Ray, Tim Quinlan, Keshav Sharma, and Tacita A.O. Clarke

No. 9 The Politics of Access: University Education and Nation-Building in Nigeria, 19482000
by Ogechi Emmanuel Anyanwu

No. 10 Social Work in Africa: Exploring Culturally Relevant Education and Practice in Ghana
By Linda Kreitzer

Linda Kreitzer

Table of Contents

Adinkra Symbols

The journey towards initiating and ultimately writing this book (my PhD research) did not begin with my first visit to Ghana in 1994. It began as a young child watching slides of my fathers visits to Africa. My own courage and confidence to travel came from my parents, who throughout their lives travelled the world, making it a normal part of lifes experience. My own travels outside my country of the United States began in 1972 with a backpacking trip with my sister at the young age of 17. In 1981, I moved to London, England, where I experienced my first cross-cultural living experience. I learned what it was like to be a privileged immigrant and to live and work in a different culture. During the thirteen years I lived in England, I took advantage of the opportunities to travel to many parts of the world in order to experience and learn about other cultures. This interest in other cultures paralleled my training and practice in social work and led naturally to an interest in combining my two passions. In particular I was drawn to learning how social work had developed and was currently manifested in other countries, particularly non-western countries. Specifically, I discovered and learned how other cultures provided social supports for people at the individual, group, and community level. I was interested in knowing if social workers (or their equivalents) were present in other countries, what social and professional role they filled, and what education they received in their country. In the past twenty-two years, this journey has included lengthy times spent in Britain, Ghana, Armenia, Canada, and a Liberian refugee camp.