When we look at standard world maps, the immense scale of Africa is almost always lost to distortion. This volumetric breakdown reveals the astonishing reality: the African continent is a massive geographical container capable of swallowing several of the world’s largest superpowers simultaneously. By mapping out landmasses by their actual surface area rather than forcing rigid shapes to overlap on a flat map, we can see that China, Australia, Western Europe, and India combined take up nearly 85% of Africa’s total footprint. Even after packing in substantial nations like Iran, New Zealand, and Singapore, a massive surplus of empty space remains untouched—a stark reminder of just how much traditional cartography skews our perception of the Global South.

Here is how these global territories stack up against Africa’s total capacity of 30.3 million square kilometres:

Do a detailed reading of this topic from our blog post Restoring the balance: why the United Nations (UN) adopted the Togo-Equal Earth Projection (TEEP) world map.

New book (external)

A reader of Owia Bulletin, Daniel Adeagbo, recently co-authored a book titled Future-ready Social Worker. Use the URL to access the table of contents list, forward and to buy the digital book. The book has content on decolonising, indigenising social work in Africa, and cited significantly more African literature. It is a 1-hour read!

Successful Wazee Day 2026

Wazee Day 2026, held on 9 October under the theme “The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives,” was a success. The event brought together participants from across Africa and beyond to learn, share, and develop strategies for older persons in Africa. A full report, including key points from the presentations by Prof Stephan Geyer (University of Pretoria, South Africa) and Dr Elizabeth Ajayi (Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria), is being finalised and will be published on the Mtandao website and in this newsletter. Our next collaborative event is Fundo yaUbuntu | Ubuntu Annual Lecture, with details to be posted soon.

Mtandao extend sincere thanks to the events Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) (joint with and the Association of the Schools of Social Work in Africa, ASSWA) for their work in making Wazee Day possible. The JCC comprises Yvonne Tchaka Karekezi (Co-Chairperson) and Olabisi Adebawo from Mtandao and Dr Corlie Giliomee (Co-Chairperson), Susan Muchiri and Dr Wilkins Ndege Muhingi from ASSWA.

Vacancies and opportunities

We use the Ubuntu framework to categorise the roles we have aggregated for readers. The framework sees everything as interconnected and groups work according to five levels: family or familyhood (ukama), community or communityhood (ujamaa), societal or societyhood (ujamii), environmental or environmenthood (umvelo) and spiritual or spiritualhood (uroho). Ukama covers the extended and tribal family, not only parents and children. Ujamaa covers the collective life of a community. Ujamii covers the cultural, economic, political and global whole. Umvelo holds that people and the environment are one, and uroho holds that the spiritual, the environmental and the human exist together. A role can touch more than one level, so each vacancy below sits where the greater part of its work falls.

Family, familyhood (ukama)

• Child protection officer: UNICEF, Ethiopia, closes 26/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

• Protection assistant: Unique Care and Support Foundation, Nigeria, closes 20/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

Community, communityhood (ujamaa)

• Social protection officers (multiple positions): Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Nigeria, closes 18/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

• Social and behaviour change officer: UNICEF, Mozambique, closes 21/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

• Programme manager, community stabilisation: IOM, Somalia, closing date not stated, minimum master’s degree, link

Societal, societyhood (ujamii)

• International project manager consultant: UN Women, South Africa, closes 16/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• Communications intern, South Sudan citizens only: UNICEF, South Sudan, closes 18/10/26, minimum current university enrolment, link

• Knowledge management consultant, gender equality team: UNICEF, Kenya (remote), closes 19/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

• Prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse specialist, Kenya citizens only: UNFPA, Kenya, closes 19/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• Education officer: UNICEF, Madagascar, closes 22/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

• International team leader on a school dropout strategy: UNICEF, Central African Republic, closes 22/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• National consultant on social worker training, Tunisia citizens only: UNICEF, Tunisia (remote), closes 23/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• National consultant on a school dropout strategy: UNICEF, Central African Republic, closes 23/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• Monitoring and evaluation officer: UNICEF, Madagascar, closes 23/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• Innovation officer: UNICEF, Tanzania, closes 23/10/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

• Programme management specialist, Mali nationals and residents only: UN Women, Mali, closes 25/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

• Chief of education: UNICEF, Angola, closes 26/10/26, minimum master’s degree, link

Environmental, environmenthood (umvelo)

• Environmental and social safeguards officer: UNICEF, Central African Republic, closes 2/11/26, minimum bachelor’s degree, link

Spiritual, spiritualhood (uroho)

• No roles this week.

What you can use from Mtandao for these positions

• Roles: list any role you hold in Mtandao on your CV, for example member of the Mtandao ethics committee. Details about joining Mtandao and be part of its several committees, groups and teams are here.

• Training: mention courses you have completed, for example the Ethics Course

• Events: include events you have attended, for example Wazee Day or the Women in Research event

• Day of the African Child Students Conference: mention attending, presenting, reviewing abstracts or helping organise the conference, as this shows a direct commitment to children’s rights

• Publications: add any work you have published, for example in the People Centred journal

Full Title of the Masterclass: Inside the Friendship Bench: Mechanisms, Methodology and Innovations that Decolonise Practice

The course is facilitated by Professor Dixon Chibanda, founder of the Friendship Bench, who holds chairs at the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and directs the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI).

Overview: The Friendship Bench (FB) is a community based, evidence based mental health intervention founded in 2006 by Professor Chibanda in Mbare, Harare, Zimbabwe. Trained lay grandmothers, known as Gogo or Ambuya Utano, deliver structured problem solving talk therapy from benches at primary healthcare clinics. The grandmothers address kufungisisa, the Shona expression for thinking too much, which describes depression and anxiety, through culturally grounded care rather than imported clinical models.

Enrol by 30 October

Enrol Now

Attendance is limited to 30 only.

This masterclass of 30 participants is presented by the Friendship Bench in partnership with Mtandao, Africa Social Work and Development Network. It sets out the mechanisms, methodology and innovations that make the Friendship Bench a model for decolonising mental health practice: an Africa initiated intervention that has since been replicated in over 12 countries across Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, used by global institutions including FIFA, and is now formally integrating into government structures in all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe.

The course covers the theoretical foundations, core methodology and practice mechanics of the model, including kufungisisa and the task sharing approach, alongside the evidence base that supports it, most notably the 2016 randomised controlled trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that grandmother delivered therapy outperformed therapy delivered by trained psychologists at six months.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Outcome 1: Describe the origins of the Friendship Bench, including its founding by Professor Dixon Chibanda in Mbare, Harare, in 2006, and its growth into a globally replicated model.

Outcome 2: Define kufungisisa and explain how this Shona concept reframes depression and anxiety in culturally grounded terms, rather than through imported clinical categories.

Outcome 3: Explain the task sharing approach used by the Friendship Bench, including the role of trained lay grandmothers, Gogo or Ambuya Utano, as the central delivery mechanism of the model.

Outcome 4: Evaluate the evidence base for the Friendship Bench, including the 2016 randomised controlled trial in the Journal of the American Medical Association and its recognition in the 2025 World Happiness Report.

Outcome 5: Assess how the Friendship Bench model functions as an example of Ubuntu led, decolonial mental health practice, and how it has scaled from a single site in Harare to national government integration and international adoption.

Features

• Live online

• Training delivered by the founder

• Certificate

• Evidence-based

• No prior training in mental health required

Target audiences

• This course is aimed at mental health professionals, social workers, community health workers, public health practitioners and Indigenous workers worldwide, alongside academics and policymakers interested in task sharing models, community delivered care, and decolonial approaches to mental health, reflecting the Friendship Bench’s own reach across more than 12 countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, and its adoption by global institutions such as the WHO and FIFA.

Requirements

• Two (2) hours of your time

• Good internet connection

• WhatsApp number to facilitate emergency communication, if required

Enrol Now

Wazee Day of Older Persons, 9 October 2026, online

The 36th United Nations International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) will be commemorated under the theme “The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives.” The theme invites the international community to reimagine how societies can make longer lives also healthy, productive, dignified and equitable. It calls attention to the role of systems, social protection, health and long-term care, work and lifelong learning, and enabling environments, in supporting people to age with security, dignity and continued participation.

In response, Mtandao and the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA) will co-host Wazee Day Indaba 2026 on Friday, 9 October 2026 at 14:00 South Africa Standard Time (SAST). Now in its fourth year since launching in 2023, the event celebrates older persons in Africa under the values of being valued, included and empowered. This year’s presenters are Professor Stephan Geyer from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Dr Elizabeth Ajayi from Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria. The event is online and open to all.

Register here.

Recommended readings:

• Okoye Intergenerational Connection Model of Aging (OICMA)

• Africa Ageing Theory – Nyanguru model of ageing

We have an MOU with Association of the Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA) which guides are joint work. The MOU can be accessed below. As part of the MOU, we have formed a Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC). The current members of the JCC are:

Call for Special Issue Manuscripts: Journal of Ubuntu | Nyingi waUbuntu

Title of special issue: Ubuntu, dignity and death: re-imagining funeral justice and collective responsibility within indigenous communities

Submission email: Editor in Chief, Dr Xweso Mzukisi, North-West University, SA, ubuntu@africasocialwork.net

Editorial board members

1. Meinrad Haule Lembuka, The Open University of Tanzania

2. Yuvan Sankar, National Integrated Welfare and Development Trust (NIWAD), India

3. A/Prof. Mina M. Ogbanga, Rivers State University, Nigeria

4. Laison Mwiinde, Zimbabwe

5. Stanislaus Matindike, Zimbabwe

6. Dr Wilkins N. Muhingi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya

7. Kudzai Mwapaura, Women’s University in Africa, Zimbabwe

8. Wilberforce Kurevakwesu, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe

9. Dr Sharlotte Tusasiirwe, Western Sydney University, Australia

10. Dr Oliver Mutanga, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan

11. Institute of Ubuntu Thought and Practice, African Studies Center, Michigan State University, USA

12. Dr Kenneth Yakubu, The George Institute for Global Health, Australia

13. Dr Deepika Saluja, The George Institute for Global Health, India

Most read page on our website

The most read webpage on Mtandao is https://africasocialwork.net/african-theories-of-social-work/ This page contains over 108 theories from African knowledge, including over 23 on Ubuntu.

We hope we find you well.

After two months of irregular publishing caused by platform glitches from a surge in new subscribers, the Owia Bulletin is back!

To better accommodate our growing audience, we have transitioned to Substack, a platform that offers incredible advantages for our growing community of readers. You can now easily engage with our content by liking, commenting, sharing, and restacking our posts. Plus, Substack features an excellent, ad-free app designed with user safety in mind.

You will definitely notice some great improvements from our previous editions. Enjoy this Bulletin, and please share it and encourage others to subscribe!

Our next event

Join us for our next event: the Wazee Day Indaba! Scheduled for 9 October 2026 at 2:00 pm SAT/CAT, this year’s indaba is proudly co-organised with the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA).

First launched in 2013, this vital annual event continues to champion the wellbeing of older persons, from a social work and developmental perspective. Following the success of our 2025 session where Dr Emmanuel Bukajumbe led a powerful discussion on dementia risks, symptoms, and care under the theme “Educate, empower, prevent Dementia!!” We look forward to another impactful gathering.

The theme, topic and presenters for Wazee 2026 will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

Our blog posts

Our website hosts a blog page. To read our blog posts, click the button below.

Mtandao Blog Page

As always, we keep our newsletters short so they are quick and enjoyable to read.

See you next time.