The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) community experienced severe flooding and landslides caused by heavy rainfall in April 2022. The floods destroyed many homes, left thousands homeless, and caused many deaths. The flood survivors were traumatized, displaced, and disoriented. Furthermore, the experiences of being housed in community centres tarnished their dignity and robbed them of their individual, family, and community identities. Informed by the African-centred worldview, a team of social workers and psychologists from the Ma’at Institute responded by implementing African-centred Psychosocial Interventions (APIs) to flood survivors who were housed in community halls. The interventions focused on minimizing the effects of the floods, healing, restoring, and strengthening their resilience. This chapter answers the following questions: what is the methodological approach to working with African indigenous communities (AICs)?; how to negotiate entry, establish relationships, and build rapport with AICs; and what are African-centred trauma debriefing and resilience-strengthening tools and techniques relevant to the AICs? Contrary to Eurocentric psychosocial services, which view selfhood as premised on the view that individuals exist independently of culture and language, this chapter presents arguments in favour of context-specific, holistic, and culturally relevant interventions that do not uproot people from their frames of reference, language, and ways of being.

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Centring the Response to the KwaZulu-Natal Floods in the African-Centred Psychosocial Interventions

  • Sibonsile Zibane,
  • Sthembiso Phoswa,
  • Nokukhanya Zondi

摘要

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) community experienced severe flooding and landslides caused by heavy rainfall in April 2022. The floods destroyed many homes, left thousands homeless, and caused many deaths. The flood survivors were traumatized, displaced, and disoriented. Furthermore, the experiences of being housed in community centres tarnished their dignity and robbed them of their individual, family, and community identities. Informed by the African-centred worldview, a team of social workers and psychologists from the Ma’at Institute responded by implementing African-centred Psychosocial Interventions (APIs) to flood survivors who were housed in community halls. The interventions focused on minimizing the effects of the floods, healing, restoring, and strengthening their resilience. This chapter answers the following questions: what is the methodological approach to working with African indigenous communities (AICs)?; how to negotiate entry, establish relationships, and build rapport with AICs; and what are African-centred trauma debriefing and resilience-strengthening tools and techniques relevant to the AICs? Contrary to Eurocentric psychosocial services, which view selfhood as premised on the view that individuals exist independently of culture and language, this chapter presents arguments in favour of context-specific, holistic, and culturally relevant interventions that do not uproot people from their frames of reference, language, and ways of being.