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This article argues that South African social work education, situated in Western modernism and broadly within the ideological project of colonialism and racist capitalism, should move from knowledge and discourses which are domesticating and oppressive, and do essential decolonising work. It explores colonialism and post-colonialism and the politics of social work knowledge, it describes the processes of the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, and then it describes the work of decolonisation. In order to move from coloniality and domestication, which means neither indigenisation nor Africanisation, social work education must 1) reclaim and repossess truths and narratives about the history of social work in South Africa, 2) explore ideology underlying its knowledge and discourses, 3) facilitate critical conscientisation and cultivate a critical and anti-colonial approach, and 4) include anti-colonial theorists in the curriculum. It provides two examples of courses which facilitate such a process.

The task of examining the origins and development of social work is fraught with competing narratives. In South Africa individualist, liberal, colonial, masculine and "white" discourses prevail. The dialectical-historical perspective, rather than chronological "progress", shows how socio-political and economic dynamics are formative of societal conditions and of social work, which in turn has a role in shaping these dynamics. The fiction of purely historical records of progress and freedom of choice is challenged, and hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses uncovered. Social workers are urged to be engaged with the full complexity of events emerging from the class and race-based antagonisms of South African society.

Preparation of novel poly(alkylamine)-derived hydrogels is described. Polymers are prepared via reaction of various diamines with dihalo compounds or diepoxides. N-substituted polymers are readily prepared by reaction of primary amines with dihalo compounds. The resulting covalently cross-linked polymers exhibit hydrogel behavior (high swell with water) when ionized to polyammonium species at low pH. At high pH, the polymers reside in the free base polyamine form and lose all hydrogel character (they no longer swell in water). Characterization of polymer structure with carbon-13 NMR, thermal analysis, and swell behavior reveals a structure which is highly branched and only loosely cross-linked. In the ionic polyammonium form thermal stability up to ∼300 °C is observed. The polymers exhibit activity as bile acid sequestrants significantly superior to cholestyramine, as evidenced by their ability to efficiently bind quantities of cholate when tested in vitro. This behavior indicates that these hydrogels should be very useful for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia.