Cross Cultural Social Work

Cross Cultural Social Work
Cross Cultural Social Work
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Course
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Cross Cultural Social Work
Introduction
I am Damilare Olawaie Shodiya from Yoruba tribe. Yoruba community is said to be prolific
sculptors and famous for cotta works. Yoruba is the largest tribe in West Africa which has a lot
of cultural practices that are beneficial. The tribe is associated with a number of activities which
brings a sense of identity and a sense of origin (Adegboye,2013). We have some cultural
activities which attribute to the aspect of professionalism and social work practices. This shows
that there are specific cultural practices in my tribe which have informed me on my cultural
identity related to professional identity and future social work practices. Some of the cultural
practices in my tribe include;
Festivals: Yoruba festivals such as the Osun festivals attract one to soak to the culture of Yoruba.
Weddings: A typical Nigerian wedding combines at least two ceremonies – the traditional
wedding and the religious ceremony. The traditional wedding ceremonies what we normally call
the "Owambe" where all elders are present to strengthen the family bond and bless the couple
with food fortune.
Language: The Yoruba language is rumored to be the easiest language to master and understand.
The Oyo Empire: The embodiment of culture and history of Yoruba tribe (Fong & Ng, 2012).
Discussion
Generally, professional identity refers to ones professional self-concept that is based on different
attributes, different values, beliefs, motives and also experiences while social work practices
involve the application of professional skills such as principles, values, and techniques so as to

Cross Cultural Social Work
assist people to obtain tangible practices and services (Kinloch & Metge, 2014).Therefore, the
above mentioned cultural practices in the Yoruba tribe helps in constructing my professional
identity and social work practices in the following ways.
First, the cultural ethics and values in my tribe instill a sense of direction. For example, the issue
of religion in my tribe helps in bringing people together. Most of the people in my tribe still
performing traditional religious rituals. The practice for traditional religion in my tribe varies
from one community to another community (LaRose, Connolly, Lee & Hales, 2014). For
example, we have gods such as deity who may be a male to one community and female in
another community. In Yoruba, the worshipers of a deity are known as his "children."We have
religious leaders who direct people on what to do and not to do. This shows that most of our
religious virtues help in bringing people together thus helping me to practice social work
activities. The most interesting virtue that helps in bringing the sense of social work practices is
the Yoruba court. The court instills the concept of social justice in all communities. The
proceedings in the court demand each individual in the community to swear by giving the
trustful testimony by a kissing a machete which is sacred to Ogun (the god of war and metal
working in my community). Through this practice, we are able to instill the issue of social work
practices in different places within Nigeria.
In addition, the fork arts and crafts in my community improved my professional identity (Leykin
et al., 2012). Most of the activities carried out in my community emphasizes on the issue of
creativity and hardworking. Yoruba engage in verbal arts and visual arts. Some of the visual arts
include the weaving, pottering, wood carving and metal working. We have rural industries which
work on metal workings. Youths are always trained on how to melt and mix metals with