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“A (non-academic) collaborator living in Canada – and, what’s more, a member of my own ethnic community – was the first to attack me. He circulated a message on social media questioning my findings. But beyond simply challenging my research, he called on armed groups to kill me.”

Bosco Muchukiwa, “Surviving Intimidation: When having your research challenged upends your life as researcher”

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“Research contracts rarely include any sort of clause about researchers’ physical safety – much less, their mental well-being. Responsibility for these aspects of the work falls entirely to individual researchers themselves.”

Élisée Cirhuza, Irène Bahati, Thamani Précieux Mwaka and An Ansoms, “Work Without Pay? A critical look at the contracts and lived experiences of local researchers in the DRC”

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“There is thus a permanent tension between one’s passion for a particular subject of research, and the scholarly detachment one needs in order to study the topic in an academically valid way. This tension is all the more intense for researchers and research assistants living in their own research area.”

Francine Mudunga, “Epistemological rupture, detachment, and decentering: requirements when doing research ‘at home’”

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“Knowledge production protocols instruct us to detach ourselves from our field in order to study it. But what does this imply for field ethics in poor and insecure places?”

Anuarite Bashizi, “The egocentricity of field ethics: questioning otherness, decency and responsibility”

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“I was alone with a driver, who took me to see a spot where a rebel commander had killed a Colonel from the national army. I was familiar with the Colonel in question, as he had been one of the leaders of my own community.”

Thamani Mwaka Précieux, “Waiting for the morning birds: researcher trauma in insecure environments”

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“The actors in the first block have access to research funding and usually have full control over the research process. They determine the code of conduct and the terms of reference and try to ensure that a minimum of the research objectives is appropriated by recruited research assistants through short-term training programmes.”

Godefroid Muzalia, “‘Businessisation of Research’ and Dominocentric Logics: Competition for Opportunities in Collaborative Research”

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“Conceiving of ourselves as brothers in some sense (‘kaka, ndugu’), we found mutual support was as central as the mutual criticism to our improvement.”

Josaphat Musamba and Christoph Vogel, “Umoja ni nguvu: towards more equitable collaborative research”

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“[T]he researcher from the Global South largely remains invisible in the research outputs, including the publications…”

Élisée Cirhuza, “Taken out of the picture? The researcher from the Global South and the fight against ‘academic neo-colonialism’”

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“[V]ery few academics are conscious of the fact that the decolonisation of knowledge production involves them personally.”

Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka, “Can silent voices speak? When power relationships govern the conditions of speech.”

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“[I]t’s clear that there are still major power imbalances and counterproductive rationales within the academic enterprise. Because of unfounded assumptions, the work of research assistants in the production of knowledge often remains entirely invisible.”

Emery Mudinga, “We barely know these Southern researchers! Reflections on some harmful assumptions about Southern research collaborators”

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“This dynamic evokes a sort of ‘academic colonialism’ that fails to treat the research assistant as a collaborator whose rights are equal to those of counterparts from the Global North.”

Stanislas Bisimwa Baganda, “‘They stole his brain’: The local researcher – a data collector, or researcher in his own right?”

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“Shouldn’t they have the opportunity to be a part of the subsequent stages of a study, even after the submission of their reports? This sort of visibility could, after all, open doors for them and allow them to make professional progress.”

Judith Buhendwa Nshobole, “‘Donor-Researchers’ and ‘Recipient-Researchers’: bridging the gap between researchers from the Global North and Global South”

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“By ignoring a key actor who knows the data better than anybody, one ends up missing out on valuable insights and original analytical perspectives.”

Bienvenu Mukungilwa, “‘These Phantom Researchers’: What of their visibility in academic publications?”

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“Getting out of such situations requires a lot of rhetorical effort and strategic humor. But it may also result in lingering frustration and even trauma.”

An Ansoms and Irène Bahati, “When the room is laughing: from female researcher to researcher-prostitute”

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“If actors in the field come to regard the researcher as a spy, or to see him or her as a threat due to meetings or interviews, then there’s reason to fear that the entire research project will be called into question. It eventually can also put the researcher’s life in danger.”

Josaphat Musamba, “Navigating Armed Conflict Zones”

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“The simple act of being present or asking questions on a certain topic can create a new conflict and/or revive an existing one.”

Précieux Thamani Mwaka, Stanislas Bisimwa Baganda and An Ansoms, “He’s hiding under his hat! Going in disguise to collect data in the field”

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“The simple act of being present or asking questions on a certain topic can create a new conflict and/or revive an existing one.”

Eric Batumike Banyanga, “When an Armed Guide is Imposed on You: Navigating Research in a Conflict Zone”

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“Sir, stop coming here to get rich off the backs of others. When your research is done, you’ll get your diploma, and be given honours, and earn recognition and a good reputation – while me, I’ll always be stuck back here, unhappy in my village.”

Jérémie Mapatano, “When you become Pombe Yangu (My Beer): Dealing with the financial expectations of research participants”

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“[R]esearchers aren’t considered just researchers but also donor representatives, thus raising expectations among respondents. One consequence can be the reticence or refusal to share information without a financial reward in return.”

Élisée Cirhuza Balolage and Esther Kadetwa Kayanga, “In the presence of white skin: the challenges arising from people’s expectations when encountering white researchers in the field”

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“[P]roject leaders often deploy research assistants as simple ‘data collection robots’, without first involving them in methodological reflections or giving them the space in which to provide valuable orientation for their foreign counterparts.”

Vedaste Cituli Alinirhu, “‘A research assistant is just an implementer’: the argument in favor of involving local researchers in project design”

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“The issues an NGO targets are not necessarily related to the realities or the actual problems that the population experiences but rather are determined by the organisation’s own priorities.”

Pierre Basimise Ngalishi Kanyegere, “The NGO-ization of Academic Research”

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“The subordination of African thought to Western paradigms extends from teaching programmes through research projects to the point of publication by supposedly well-regarded Western journals.”

Joël Baraka Akilimali, “Escaping Big Brother’s gaze in research in the Global South”

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“Real collaboration isn’t only about doing things together at each stage, including project design and proposal writing; it implies questioning the reference frameworks and practices we rely on.”

Koen Vlassenroot, “Can collaborative research projects reverse external narratives of violence and conflict?”

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“It is a trend in our respective circles […] to undermine women researchers with arguments rooted in a kind of chauvinism. This happens above all among our loved ones, at the family level, with friends, and among colleagues who make comments like: ‘How will she maintain a household while doing this sort of work?’”

Irène Bahati, “The challenges facing female researchers in conflict settings”

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“The question they ask is always the same: ‘When will we get a report on your findings?’ For lack of a better response, I tell them (dying a little inside), ‘Hold on; we’re still thinking it through.’ Deep down, though, I know no report is coming. And this weighs on me.”

Christian Chiza Kashurha, “‘Hold on; we’re still thinking it through.’ When will we get a report on your findings?”

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“[I]n the absence of any measures to provide communities with the results of the research they participate in, one can already see participants displaying an attitude of reticence and/or refusal that may jeopardize the work of future researchers on the ground…”

Isaac Bubala Wilondja, “’Give Me Back My Words’: reflections on a forgotten aspect of participant follow-up”

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“[T]he researcher can’t just force her way into the field; her access to the information she needs to carry out good research is always dependent on the good will of the research participants.”

Irène Bahati, “‘Come back later.’ – ‘On what day?’ – ‘Just, come back!’”

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“When researchers are perceived as ‘getting fat off their respondents’ time and energy’, it’s easy to see how this could present problems for reliable data collection.”

Espoir Bisimwa Bulangalire, “The ‘Researcher-Glutton’: Data collection in insecure settings in the Global South”

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“[I]t would be important to create space for discussions and exchanges about the human challenges of research.”

François-Merlan Zaluke Banywesize, “Research, or Adventure? The lived experiences of researcher assistants”

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“[A] research assistant’s involvement is not limited to data collection alone… the assistant must often work under the pressure of a timetable imposed by a donor who may not have a sufficient understanding of realities on the ground.”

Esther Kadetwa, “Reliable data? The pressure to deliver, versus the complexities of the field”

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“Academic and research institutions must take the lead in improving the remuneration of researchers from the Global South, by taking into account the complexities and risks that arise in the field.”

Élisée Cirhuza,“Remunerating researchers from the Global South: a source of academic prostitution”?

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“To her, all the cries for divine assistance in a moment of terror had meant absolutely nothing… During difficult moments, true cross-cultural communication indeed becomes a great challenge.”

Dieudonné Bahati Shamamba, “Lost in translation? Managing cultural differences in the face of risk in the field”

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“Many are deeply traumatised by the violence they have experienced, or witnessed, or heard about in their research participants’ accounts; or by their feelings of helplessness in the face of the injustices they encounter.”

An Ansoms, “When the backpack is full: the omertà surrounding the psychological burdens of academic research”

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“Local researchers do the fieldwork, but the risks they face are often ignored. In the event of illness, kidnapping, or accidents, the research commissioners usually decline all responsibility.”

Alice Mugoli Nalunva, “Between Passion and Precarity: the work of a researcher in the DRC”

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While local researchers and research assistants carry out the bulk of research in the Congo, researchers based in the Global North continue to dictate the designs, timetables, and goals of most research projects in the country. Thus, the people designing the projects are often out of touch with realities on the ground, and may impose unrealistic expectations and demands on their colleagues in the South.

Researchers in the South, meanwhile, often feel unable to challenge these demands due to entrenched imbalances in power, resources, funding, etc. As Kash shows in this illustration, such pressures may at times force local researchers to make ethically questionable decisions in their work. For a candid and perceptive exploration of these dynamics, check out Esther Kadetwa’s essay “Reliable data? The pressure to deliver, versus the complexities of the field,” and Élisée Cirhuza’s “Remunerating researchers from the Global South: a source of academic prostitution?”

Naturally, every research cycle is contingent on adherence to several parameters, and a respect for scheduling is a fundamental element among these. Yet the schedules of many projects often fail to take into account the complexities of the situation on the ground. In many cases, a research assistant’s involvement is not limited to data collection alone. Also, the assistant must often work under the pressure of a timetable imposed by a donor who may not have a sufficient understanding of realities on the ground. Thus, the research assistant finds herself in an ambivalent position, caught between her Northern partner’s expectations, and the complexities of the field – and given very little room to manoeuver, in terms of conveying her concerns from the ground to the donor in the North.

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When the backpack is full…

Many of the essays in the Bukavu Series deal with the psychological toll that work in a conflict zone can take on researchers over time. In “When the backpack is full: the omertà surrounding the psychological burdens of academic research,” An Ansoms writes that this toll is further augmented by a culture of silence in academic circles. Few spaces exist in which researchers can show vulnerability and speak openly about the traumas they witness or experience during their work. Instead, people are expected to shoulder their psychological burdens silently and present a brave face to their colleagues. In this satirical image, Kash shows a Congolese and a foreign researcher being urged to believe that the human bones they have encountered in the field are just bonobo skeletons – rather than the obvious traces of a recent atrocity. Ansoms ends her essay with an impassioned call for a shift away from a culture of stiff-upper-lipped silence, towards one of openness and mutual support.

Over the past three years, while confronting my own nightmares after fifteen years of research in the African Great Lakes Region, I have had the opportunity to speak confidentially about this subject with dozens of researchers working in violent settings. Their words bore witness to an immense loneliness in the face of the psychological burdens connected to their research. Many are deeply traumatized by the violence that they have experienced, or witnessed, or heard about in their research participants’ accounts; or by their feelings of helplessness in the face of the injustices they encounter. Very few of these researchers have found the necessary space within their professional settings to talk about this; still fewer have been able to count on psychological support to process the effects. The omertà appears to be generalized.

An Ansoms, “When the backpack is full: the omertà surrounding the psychological burdens of academic research”