The Effect of Metaphysics in Confounding Social and Community Development in Africa: Eclectic Contexts

Abstract

The article discusses the effects of metaphysics on social and community development in the eclectic contexts of Africa. The researcher sourced information through a literature review of data across many English-authored journal articles, monographs, books, and book chapters. The journal papers were accessed from diverse Google search engines such as Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, Research Gate, Web of Science, ResearchGate, Scopus, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), and Google Scholar. The findings presented the following metaphysics-related hurdles confounding social and community development: religious fanatism, faith from traditional healers in South Africa and Botswana, the unconventional practices of the white garment churches (Vapositori) of Zimbabwe and Bazezuru of Botswana, and the mythical environment embedded among the people of South Africa and Botswana. The paper concludes that people’s metaphysical beliefs influence social work development paradigms perniciously. This is because people see and interpret developmental reality from their metaphysical lenses. The paper challenges the African governments, in collaboration with other development partners, to strengthen their advocacy campaign to communities that subscribe to unconventional beliefs and ideologies so that they can undergo a paradigm shift to change their anti-developmental beliefs. The findings also widen the literature on the domain of metaphysics. Keywords: Metaphysics, African Indigenous churches, traditional healers, pandemics, mythical environments, stigma and stigmatization.