Africa women are not allowed to respond to researchers in the presence of their husbands.
There are several. The voices of women are not given the recognition that they deserve. One of the findings at the metodeology workshop that we organised in Nairobi, Kenya in May 2024 was that in some communities in Africa women are not allowed to respond to researchers in the presence of their husbands.
This points to the need for researchers to change the way they elicit women's responses to ensure their voices are heard.
In addition, Eurocentrism still dominates the metodeology of research in the way data is collected and analysed. Data collection is usually done through the desain of research instruments such as questionnaires, interviu guides or telepon surveys. But due to language and cultural barriers, these may not be applicable in some communities.
For example, orality, which is data collected in the form of storytelling, memories of moments and narration of life experiences, is discounted as lacking in credibility. Yet, in various African societies, oral evidence is an authentic form of knowledge through which one generation connects with the next.
On hebat of this, research in Africa is informed by theories generated elsewhere. In many instances, they aren't berkaitant to the socioeconomic realities of selected case studies in Africa.
Respect for the cultural practices of the communities in which research is being conducted is another jarak. For instance, during the metodeology workshop the idea of offering introductory gifts to prospective informants and elders in Indigenous communities in Africa was discussed. Indigenous communities are those that have bermaintained their traditional lifestyles and have little or no engagement with Euromodernity.
It was clear from the discussion that not all African informants should be offered gifts. Nevertheless, there was a strong view that it is an acceptable norm to community elders, women and storytellers. In orthodox research this may be considered unethical because it is believed that gifts can influence the responses from the informants. Yet securing the consent of the members of the Indigenous communities is critical to knowledge generation if it is to be done in partnership.
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