IK Monitor Research (8-3)

Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, November 2000

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Research, projects

Observations bearing on fieldworkers' manners and conduct

By C.O. Izugbara

In 1997 I conducted an elaborate study of malaria-related beliefs among the Ngwa of southeastern Nigeria. The findings of this study have been published elsewhere (Izugbara 1998). While doing fieldwork I observed how important it is for researchers to behave properly. As there is little published information about this, I would like to share my observations with Monitor readers who are interested in the study of indigenous knowledge systems.

The fieldwork was done with the help of six trained Ngwa-speaking field assistants: two female and four male. The study took place in the Ngwa community Avo in Obete Nchina village of Ntighauzor Amairi Autonomous community in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. Avo has a population of 550 persons. Four very small patrilineages make up Avo hamlet.

We had chosen to use the anthropological approach that relies heavily on ethnographic techniques of data collection which yield rich qualitative data. This approach uses informal and semi-structured interviews combined with intensive, systematic observations made by a researcher who participates in the community under study. If we used it well, this anthropological approach could provide the necessary descriptive basis for a thorough understanding of indigenous notions of malaria in the locality in question.

Manners during research
All members of the research teams were Ngwa-speaking. This reduced the problem of gaining entry, removed the need to use interpreters, and provided the insider's point of view regarding the issues under consideration. The fieldworkers were aware of local mores, norms, and key values, which facilitated their acceptance among the people.

During our stay in the field, we noticed that local people want to be accorded the respect due to them before they are ready to cooperate. Elderly respondents in particular were always unwilling to cooperate with us if they thought we had ignored local rules governing conversation between the young and the elderly. The Ngwa, like most African people, take very serious exception to young people probing and testing the intelligence of the elderly. So it was only when we humbly, cautiously, and courteously questioned them that they talked freely. In many instances, our requests for clarification on certain issues were also misconstrued.

When we asked one elderly man to oblige us with information, his reply was revealing: 'I am ready to talk to you provided you do not interrupt me. I will talk first and you will ask questions later.' Generally male adults preferred requests for clarification to come only after they had finished airing their views.

The behaviour of fieldworkers while holding interviews with 'key' respondents is also crucial. During the study, some of the key respondents we talked with were local healers. Discussions with local healers help to bridge much of the gap existing between theory and practice in health-seeking behaviour. But for such discussions to be fruitful, fieldworkers must watch how they themselves behave. Our experience in the field shows that only when the fieldworkers appeared ready to listen to and learn from local healers were they furnished with more in-depth information. Fieldworkers who asserted themselves and asked challenging questions elicited very little information from the local healers. A researcher evidently needs humility, patience, and openness of mind to drink freely from local healers' rich pool of indigenous medical knowledge.

How researchers behave toward key informants is another critical issue. Key informants need to be selected, used, and rewarded with care. They are not to be accorded special treatment in the presence of other members of the community. This is very important if they are to avoid whipping up feelings of envy in the community. Two members of the community we studied went about inciting others against us because one of our key informants had boasted about an electronic watch the research team presented to him. Evidently, community members had started feeling that key informants were getting more out of the research than was necessary. We had to step in to avoid things getting out of hand.

Conduct at other times
When not actually doing research, researchers must try as much as possible to bridge any gaps between them and the population under study. We achieved this by spending some of our time playfully with the people and by being enmeshed in the social currents of the community's life. Villagers were indeed happy to see us come to their church, play games, and drink with them. No sooner had local people became interested in us than they wanted to know everything about us: the types of food we ate, who helped us to prepare it, whether or not the government was paying us to do the study, what work we did, whether or not we also suffered from malaria, what we think about malaria, etc. So before long we had become entangled in local gossip. We were also given appropriate nicknames by the people. Local young men - and even married men in positions of authority - reportedly made advances to female members of the research team. I also received reports that some male members of the research team were wooing young girls in the community. The male head of one of the patrilineages (Ubakala) told me in confidence that he had reports that one of my field assistants was wooing his daughter. I promised him that I would warn the person in question to steer clear.

Active involvement in local social life and close association with the people were very instrumental in sustaining their goodwill toward the research team. We had been in the field barely two weeks before people were coming to us freely and giving us as much information as they felt was important. They also generally felt an obligation to ensure the success of the study. Visits were thus paid to us daily by many people who just wanted to know how far we had gone and to make sure that we had made accurate note of some vital point or another. We appreciated such visits and made sure that we could always offer a free drink of palm wine. Callers also went home with gifts of kolanuts, bitter-kola, handkerchiefs, etc. Such gestures secured the community's long-term participation and involvement in the study.

The study of indigenous knowledge systems and their place in the quest for sustainable development is one of the more recent developments taking place worldwide. But if researchers fail to conduct themselves in culturally-responsive ways, they are unlikely to have a chance of understanding indigenous knowledge, let alone incorporating it systematically into efforts to achieve sustainability in development initiatives. I hope to alert researchers who investigate indigenous knowledge systems to the critical need for them to mind their own conduct and behaviour while doing fieldwork among local people. If they do not do so, they cannot hope to generate information that could be relied upon for use in development initiatives and efforts.

Chimaraoke Otutubikey Izugbara
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Uyo, P.M.B. 1017, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, West Africa.
Fax: +234-926-634000.
E-mail: ims@beta.linkserve.com

Reference
Izugbara, C.O. (1998) 'Malaria-related beliefs among the Ngwa of southeastern Nigeria: Implication for sustainable development', South-South Journal of Culture and Development 1 (2) 35-48.

Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank all members of the original research team. Special thanks also go to Ms Gwendoline Macauley for her useful comments on drafts. The financial support of the Burgsey Research Consortium is also gratefully acknowledged.