UFS Department of Social Work

Today's roundtable on Generating Better Livelihoods (GBL) was 🔥! Prof Mpumelelo Ncube and Dr Merlene Esau shared insights on boosting developmental outcomes from social protection programs. Big shout-out to the MEC for Social Development (FS) for championing this crucial initiative!

Congratulations to Prof Hester C. Klopper, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Free State, on receiving the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Academic Excellence Award at the 2026 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit in Johannesburg.

Prof Klopper, the first woman to lead the University of the Free State in its 122-year history, has spent more than three decades shaping higher education, advancing nursing and health sciences education, and mentoring the next generation of scholars.

Her recognition reflects a career defined by scholarship, leadership, and a deep commitment to expanding access to education and strengthening the role of universities in society. Under her leadership, the University of the Free State continues to pursue its vision of responsible societal futures through impactful teaching, research, and community engagement.

We celebrate this well-deserved recognition and the continued influence of Prof Klopper’s leadership across Africa and the global higher education community.

Uniting for a brighter future! 🌍 This World Social Work Day and month, we are embracing the theme "Co-Building Hope and Harmony: A Harambee Call to Unite A Divided Society". Our social work students and Academic Advisory Board members, led by the students' association, are calling for collective action towards a more harmonious society. Let's join hands to build hope and unity, locally and globally! University of the Free State Ufs_swstudents

Today, 21 February, marks International Mother Language Day, a fitting occasion to reflect on linguistic decolonization and cultural reclamation.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, the visionary Kenyan writer and thinker, viewed the mother tongue as central to identity, culture, resistance against colonialism, and genuine mental liberation. In his landmark 1986 book 'Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature', he argued that colonial powers imposed European languages to subjugate minds. Schools often punished children for speaking their native tongues, forging a painful hierarchy: the colonizer's language linked to power, reward, and pleasure; the mother tongue to shame, punishment, and inferiority.

He described this as colonial alienation, a deliberate separation of the language of thought, conceptualization, formal education, and mental development from the language of daily life at home and in the community. It is "like separating the mind from the body so that they are occupying two unrelated linguistic spheres in the same person." On a broader scale, it produces "a society of bodiless heads and headless bodies."

For Ngũgĩ, the mother tongue serves as your first window into the world, the medium through which you initially grasp reality, your environment, and your community's lived experiences. Language is far from neutral; it is "a carrier of culture, history, and memory" and "the collective memory bank of a people’s experience in history."

He championed multilingualism rooted in a strong foundation in one's mother tongue, not its replacement. Reclaiming and creating in the mother tongue is a profound act of liberation, self-respect, and cultural survival, an anti-imperialist struggle.

Below are some key excerpts from his works and statements:

"Language, memory & identity... Language as culture is the collective memory bank of a people’s experience in history."

"If you know all the languages of the world and you don't know your mother tongue or the language of your culture, that is enslavement. But if you know your mother tongue or the language of your culture and add all the other languages of the world to it, that is empowerment."

"One’s mother tongue became the space of pain, to be avoided, and the conquering language became the space of pleasure, to be desired."

"The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation."

Ngũgĩ's call challenges us: true empowerment starts with honoring the language that shaped our earliest thoughts and struggles.

What does reclaiming or valuing your mother tongue look like for you today?

On World Social Justice Day

These sentiments from The Rt Honourable Baroness Valerie Amos LG CH PC, ring louder than ever:

Social justice doesn’t wait for stability, instead, stability is contingent on social justice.

We can’t postpone social justice until conditions are “perfect”, for, doing such would be perpetuation of injustice.

While institutions matter…, people matter more. Institutions exist to serve justice not the other way around.

True progress demands leadership that’s diverse, deeply meaningful, and not tokenistic.

Centre the voices of the marginalised and build unity through real inclusion, not optics.

With the strong intention to dismantle social injustice, forge coalitions across differences, it takes patience… and the courage to sit with discomfort. Polarisation entrenches social injustice.

Building social justice isn’t a sprint, it’s endurance across space, across time.

Hope isn’t something you wait to feel, it’s a daily act of courage you choose to practice.

🔥 Let’s make it real. Today. Tomorrow. Every day.

📣
Today, Dr Merlene Esau’s final year class had the honour of hosting Dr. Matiya, a retired social worker & key architect of the Older Person’s Act 13 of 2006 🇿🇦

She walked them through the Act’s history, rights, protections & real-world impact. 💡

Big shoutout to Dr. Matiya for sharing wisdom that shapes futures and to our students for soaking it all up!

Dr. Matiya didn’t just teach, she inspired!

The first block session of our Master's in School Social Work kicked off with great energy at UFS! It’s been an inspiring and enjoyable week connecting with such a wonderfully diverse group, bringing a rich mix of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds to the classroom. Here’s to a productive, growth-filled, and truly rewarding year ahead!

🎉 What a fantastic way to close the year! 🎉
Huge congratulations to our amazing Placement Liaison Officer, Mariëtte van Straaten, on earning her Doctoral degree! 👩‍🎓✨
Her thesis, titled "Developing Disaster Social Work Guidelines to Bridge Policy-Practice Gaps Based on the Covid-19 Response in the Mangaung Metropolitan, South Africa", is not only timely but a vital contribution to the field of social work.

We are incredibly proud of your dedication, hard work, and achievement, Mariette! Here's to inspiring the next generation and making a real difference. 🥂❤️
Ufs_swstudents

Exciting day! 🙌 We had the pleasure of hosting staff and students from the Department of Social Work, Northumbria University, UK 🇬🇧. We had a fantastic discussion on student research, programme offers, and more, exploring opportunities for collaboration between our departments. Thanks for the visit, Northumbria! Ufs_swstudents University of the Free State UFS Department of Social Work