Field Research in Africa

Book excerpt: How do African scholars navigate the complexities of their own identities when researching in Africa or meet the challenges of being perceived as activists? What is the impact of long-term engagement in a particular region and local ties on research? Researchers working in Africa are engaged in ethical, methodological, logistical, emotional, and professional compromises, Juggling the demands of research with being human, scholars must balance the recording of data with the emotional demands of listening, of analysing, and reporting personal, and often contradictory, narratives. This book lays bare the process by which the researcher grapples with emotions, and how 'feelings' inform and shape data collection, interpretation, write-up, and dissemination. Based on on-the-ground work from Central African Republic to Rwanda, the DRC, Algeria, and South Africa, the contributors to this book reveal the ambiguities and inconsistencies that emerge at all stages of fieldwork and provide guidance on how to tackle this. Book jacket.