Table Of ContentResearching Violence in Africa
Africa-Europe Group for
Interdisciplinary Studies
Series Editors
Gregor Dobler, University of Freiburg, Germany
Elísio Macamo, Basel University, Switzerland
Editorial Board
William Beinart, University of Oxford, UK
Filip De Boeck, Catholic University Leuven, Belgium
Patrick Chabal, King’s College London, UK
Paul Nugent, Edinburgh University, UK
Nic van de Walle, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
VOLUME 6
Researching Violence in Africa
Ethical and Methodological Challenges
Edited by
Christopher Cramer, Laura Hammond
and Johan Pottier
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
Cover illustration: Mozambican refugee hut, Mpumalanga, South Africa (1993).
Photograph by Christopher Cramer
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Researching violence in Africa : ethical and methodological challenges / edited by
Christopher Cramer, Laura Hammond, and Johan Pottier.
p. cm. — (Africa-Europe group for interdisciplinary studies ; 6)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-20312-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Violence—Research—Africa. 2. Social conflict—Research—Africa. 3. Research—
Moral and ethical aspects—Africa. I. Cramer, Christopher, Dr. II. Hammond, Laura,
1967– III. Pottier, Johan. IV. Title. V. Series.
HM886.R474 2011
303.6096—dc22
2011004718
ISSN 1574-6925
ISBN 978 90 04 20312 9
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ vii
Navigating the Terrain of Methods and Ethics in Conflict
Research .......................................................................................... 1
Johan Pottier, Laura Hammond and
Christopher Cramer
Researching Conflict in Africa: A Researcher’s Account of
Ife-Modakeke, South-Western Nigeria ...................................... 23
Olajide O. Akanji
Researching Children and Violence in Evolving Socio-Political
Contexts .......................................................................................... 39
Giorgia Doná
Four Layers of Silence: Counterinsurgency in Northeastern
Ethiopia ........................................................................................... 61
Laura Hammond
Uncertain Ethics: Researching Civil War in Sudan ..................... 79
Sharon E. Hutchinson
‘From Nation to Family’: Researching Gender and Sexuality ..... 95
Danai Mupotsa
Cooperative Ethics as a New Model for Cultural Research on
Peace and Security ........................................................................ 111
Derek B. Miller and Ron Scollon
Hidden Agendas in Conflict Research: Informants’ Interests
and Research Objectivity in the Niger Delta ............................ 137
Ukoha Ukiwo
vi contents
Silence and authoritative speech in post-violence northern
Ghana .............................................................................................. 155
Martijn Wienia
List of Contributors ........................................................................... 175
Index .................................................................................................... 179
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The papers from this volume were first presented at a workshop on
‘Researching Violence and Conflict: Methodological and Ethical Con-
siderations,’ held at the School of Oriental and African Studies on 4–5
July 2008. The workshop was hosted by the Centre of African Studies
at SOAS and supported as a thematic conference by the Africa-Europe
Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS); we would like to thank
both organisations. CAS also provided funding from its Scholarship
Fund for several researchers from Africa to attend the workshop for
which we are very grateful.
Our huge thanks to Angelica Baschiera, who arranged the workshop
and provided enormous assistance to us during the editing and book
preparation processes. It is no exaggeration to say that without her this
project would not have been possible. Thanks also to Sebastiana Etzo
who assisted Angelica, and to Chege Githiora, the current CAS Chair.
Pritish Behuria and Claudia Seymour provided crucial assistance in
constructing the index for the volume with funding from CAS, for
which we are very grateful.
We would also like to thank all of the participants of the work-
shop, whose stimulating discussion, feedback, and paper contribu-
tions helped to further our thinking on these themes. We wish that we
had been able to include all of the papers presented at the workshop.
Contributors included: Joelma Almeida, Margaret Angucia, Nanette
Barkey, Pamela Claassen, Alexandra Dias, Samuel A. Kafewo, Lisa
Rudnick, Ana Margarida Santos, Mareike Schomerus, Nerina Weiss.
At Brill, we would like to thank Franca de Kort and Gera van Bedaf.
Thanks also to the reviewers of the draft chapters for their feedback.
NAVIGATING THE TERRAIN OF METHODS
AND ETHICS IN CONFLICT RESEARCH
Johan Pottier, Laura Hammond and Christopher Cramer
Conflict settings: changing wars, changing analyses
Conflict in Africa has changed since the end of the Cold War.1 Tur-
moil within sovereign states has made way for turmoil of a more
global nature, forcing analysts to use frameworks that capture trans-
border movements and extra-legal activity. Extreme forms of violence,
while admittedly not entirely new, are now part of the arsenal of tac-
tics in common use in today’s wars. Radicalized too are the responses
to conflict-induced humanitarian aid. In the wake of 9/11, leading
donors have become preoccupied with international security; they
have made ‘security’ central to a reconfigured approach to develop-
ment. Differently put, humanitarian aid is now an integral part of the
politico-m ilitary strategies western governments (and donors) pursue
“to transform conflicts, decrease violence and set the stage for liberal
development” (Duffield, Macrae and Curtis 2001, 269). While this con-
verging of humanitarian action and politics can be seen most clearly in
places like Afghanistan and Iraq, in Africa too states perceived as ‘failed
states’ are increasingly targeted for a radical overhaul of attitudes and
beliefs. The new development agenda aims at “getting inside the head to
govern the hand” (Duffield 2002, 1067). The aid emphasis now focuses
on the will to govern; a priority which appears logical to donors since
they portray ‘borderlands’ as chaotic and devoid of morality. Arguing
against this perception of Africa’s so-called New Wars, Duffield (2002,
1059) posits that the ‘shadow economies’ of recent war zones – econo-
mies that have a transnational, extra-legal character – are governed by
social principles and may provide opportunities for reflexive develop-
ment. Similarly, Richards (2004) argues that war must be regarded as
a social system without the sharp distinction from peace or the pure
imagery of social breakdown conveyed by most mainstream analysis.
1 While some have adopted the label ‘new wars’ for post-Cold War conflicts, this
remains a contentious category: one critique is Kalyvas’s (2001).
Description:Researching violence and conflict can be challenging for a variety of reasons, including security risks to researchers and informants, restricted or lack of access to informants and field sites, and poor reliability of official data. Traditional methodological approaches may need to be adapted, and
