4 - The Discursive Dynamics of Action-Research and Zimbabwean San People’s Production of Audio-Visual Stories
Africa Development,
Vol. 45 No. 4 (2020): Africa Development
Abstract
When conducting research with historically marginalised peoples, such as Zimbabwe’s autochthonous San, it is necessary to observe the most sensitive ethical and methodological practice. The San are a group of people living largely on the edges of the contemporary market economy in the whole of southern Africa, including Zimbabwe. The San of Zimbabwe often work as unskilled labourers for their Ndebele and Kalanga neighbours in rural areas of Matebeleland. Historically, the San’s identity and culture was denigrated in popular oral and media myths. This article presents a theoretical and methodological approach steeped in critical social sciences and cultural studies to restore the San image through making the San themselves the constructors of contemporary cultural texts about their way of life using modern film and video technologies. The San tell their stories after being trained in filming and editing techniques by researchers from Midlands State University. The negotiation of space and status for both the visiting researcher-trainers and host-student San youths makes a fascinating reflexive reading of researcher-researched power dynamics. What eventually emerges is a scholarship that is cognisant of both existential humanism and the need for respectful engagement by the researchers from university citadels with ordinary people who are often belittled and exploited.
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- Arends, D., 2014, ‘Letter to Prof Keyan Tomaselli’, Critical Arts: south-north cultural and media studies (Special Issue), Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 737–738.
- Biesele, M. and Hitchcock, R.K., 1999, ‘“Two kinds of bioscope”: Practical community concerns and ethnographic film in Namibia’, Visual Anthropology, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 137–152.
- Buntman, B., 1996a, ‘Bushman images in South African tourist advertising: The Case of Kagga Kamma’, in P. Skotnes, ed., Miscast: Negotiating the presence of the Bushmen, Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
- Buntman, B., 1996b, ‘Selling with the San: Representations of Bushmen people and artifacts in South African print advertisements’, Visual Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 35–54.
- Callaway, E., 2017, ‘South Africa’s San people issue ethics code to scientists’, Nature, Vol. 543, 7646. Available online at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/south-africa-rsquo-s-san-peopleissue-ethics-code-to-scientists/. Accessed 10 December 2018.
- Cannella, G.S. and Lincoln, Y.S., 2018, ‘Ethics, research regulations, and critical social science’, in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln, eds, The Sage handbook onqualitative research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Chapman, M., 1996, Southern African literatures, London: Longman.
- Dean, M., 1999, Governmentality: power and rule in modern society, London: Sage.
- De Wet, P., 2010, South Africa’s unfinished business: The First Nation indigenous KhoeSan peoples, Saarbruchen: Lap Lambert Publishing.
- Dieckmann, U., Thiem, M., Dirkx, E. and Hays, J., 2014, ‘Scraping the pot’: San in Namibia two decades after independence, Windhoek: Legal Assistance Centre and Desert Research Foundation of Namibia.
- During, S., 1993, Introduction, in Simon During, ed., The cultural studies reader, London: Routledge.
- Fiske, J., 1994, ‘Audiencing: cultural practice and cultural studies’, in N.K. Denzin & Y.S.Lincoln, eds, The Sage handbook of qualitative research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Gillespie, T., Bockzkowiski, P.J. and Foot, K.A., 2014, Media technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and society, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Gray, A., 2003, Research practice for cultural studies: Ethnographic methods and lived cultures, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi: Sage Publications.
- Gregg, M. and Seigworth, G.J., 2010, eds, The affect theory reader, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Grossberg, L., 1996, ‘Identity and cultural studies: Is that all there is?’ in S. Hall and P. Du Gay, eds, Questions of cultural identity Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., pp. 87–107.
- Grossberg, L., 2010, ‘Affect’s future: rediscovering the virtual in the actual (interviewed by G.J. Seigworth and M. Gregg)’, in M. Gregg and G.J. Seigworth, eds, The affect theory reader, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Hall, S. and Du Gay, P., 1996, Questions of cultural identity, London: Sage.
- Harrow, K.W., 2007, Postcolonial African cinema: from political engagement to postmodernism, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
- Hayek, F., 2006, The constitution of liberty, London: Routledge.
- Henley, P., 2001, ‘Fly in the soup’, London Review of Books, Vol. 23, No. 12, pp. 35–37.
- Hitchcock, R.K., Begbie-Clench, B. and Murwira, A., 2014, ‘Indigenous space, “indigenisation”, and social boundaries among the Tshwa San of Western Zimbabwe’, paper presented at the Association of Social Anthropologists of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth (ASA) No. 14 Conference, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 19–22 June, 2014.
- Hitchcock, R.K., Begbie-Clench, B. and Murwira, A., 2016, The San in Zimbabwe: Livelihoods, land and human rights, IWGIA Report 22, IWGIA-OSISA- University of Zimbabwe.
- Hitchcock, R.K. and Nangati, F.M., 1992, Assessment of the community-based resource utilisation component of the Zimbabwe Natural Resources Management Project (690-0251), Harare, Zimbabwe: U.S. Agency for International Development.
- Hitchcock, R.K. and Nangati, F.M., 1993, ‘Drought, environmental change, and development, among the Tyua of western Zimbabwe’, International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs Newsletter 2/93, pp. 42–46.
References
Arends, D., 2014, ‘Letter to Prof Keyan Tomaselli’, Critical Arts: south-north cultural and media studies (Special Issue), Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 737–738.
Biesele, M. and Hitchcock, R.K., 1999, ‘“Two kinds of bioscope”: Practical community concerns and ethnographic film in Namibia’, Visual Anthropology, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 137–152.
Buntman, B., 1996a, ‘Bushman images in South African tourist advertising: The Case of Kagga Kamma’, in P. Skotnes, ed., Miscast: Negotiating the presence of the Bushmen, Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
Buntman, B., 1996b, ‘Selling with the San: Representations of Bushmen people and artifacts in South African print advertisements’, Visual Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 35–54.
Callaway, E., 2017, ‘South Africa’s San people issue ethics code to scientists’, Nature, Vol. 543, 7646. Available online at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/south-africa-rsquo-s-san-peopleissue-ethics-code-to-scientists/. Accessed 10 December 2018.
Cannella, G.S. and Lincoln, Y.S., 2018, ‘Ethics, research regulations, and critical social science’, in N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln, eds, The Sage handbook onqualitative research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Chapman, M., 1996, Southern African literatures, London: Longman.
Dean, M., 1999, Governmentality: power and rule in modern society, London: Sage.
De Wet, P., 2010, South Africa’s unfinished business: The First Nation indigenous KhoeSan peoples, Saarbruchen: Lap Lambert Publishing.
Dieckmann, U., Thiem, M., Dirkx, E. and Hays, J., 2014, ‘Scraping the pot’: San in Namibia two decades after independence, Windhoek: Legal Assistance Centre and Desert Research Foundation of Namibia.
During, S., 1993, Introduction, in Simon During, ed., The cultural studies reader, London: Routledge.
Fiske, J., 1994, ‘Audiencing: cultural practice and cultural studies’, in N.K. Denzin & Y.S.Lincoln, eds, The Sage handbook of qualitative research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Gillespie, T., Bockzkowiski, P.J. and Foot, K.A., 2014, Media technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and society, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gray, A., 2003, Research practice for cultural studies: Ethnographic methods and lived cultures, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Gregg, M. and Seigworth, G.J., 2010, eds, The affect theory reader, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Grossberg, L., 1996, ‘Identity and cultural studies: Is that all there is?’ in S. Hall and P. Du Gay, eds, Questions of cultural identity Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., pp. 87–107.
Grossberg, L., 2010, ‘Affect’s future: rediscovering the virtual in the actual (interviewed by G.J. Seigworth and M. Gregg)’, in M. Gregg and G.J. Seigworth, eds, The affect theory reader, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Hall, S. and Du Gay, P., 1996, Questions of cultural identity, London: Sage.
Harrow, K.W., 2007, Postcolonial African cinema: from political engagement to postmodernism, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Hayek, F., 2006, The constitution of liberty, London: Routledge.
Henley, P., 2001, ‘Fly in the soup’, London Review of Books, Vol. 23, No. 12, pp. 35–37.
Hitchcock, R.K., Begbie-Clench, B. and Murwira, A., 2014, ‘Indigenous space, “indigenisation”, and social boundaries among the Tshwa San of Western Zimbabwe’, paper presented at the Association of Social Anthropologists of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth (ASA) No. 14 Conference, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 19–22 June, 2014.
Hitchcock, R.K., Begbie-Clench, B. and Murwira, A., 2016, The San in Zimbabwe: Livelihoods, land and human rights, IWGIA Report 22, IWGIA-OSISA- University of Zimbabwe.
Hitchcock, R.K. and Nangati, F.M., 1992, Assessment of the community-based resource utilisation component of the Zimbabwe Natural Resources Management Project (690-0251), Harare, Zimbabwe: U.S. Agency for International Development.
Hitchcock, R.K. and Nangati, F.M., 1993, ‘Drought, environmental change, and development, among the Tyua of western Zimbabwe’, International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs Newsletter 2/93, pp. 42–46.