ASWEA 6th annual general meeting, Abidjan, March 1987

A conference paper on how social work in Zimbabwe helped mitigate the social ills caused by rapid industrialisation of the once rural-based country.The development of social work in Zimbabwe like in many countries was a direct response to the problems created by the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation. In order to understand the problems associated with the two processes one has to gain an appreciation of the political context in which the processes occurred. The advent of colonialism in Zimbabwe marked the beginning of a capitalist penetration in the country through the introduction of a money economy. The money economy created the need to work among the indigenous population and resulted in rural-urban migration. The urban economy could not cope with the large rural-urban migrants. As a result there was a proliferation of social problems in urban areas namely destitution, unemployment, adjustment problems and social disorganisation, overcrowding and lack of shelter