Sahel Oral History Project - Africa

The preliminary research, identification of sites, liaison with other agencies, and development of a questionnaire were carried out in early 1989. Over 500 interviews were then completed in 17 languages; some interviews involved small groups, bringing the total number of respondents to more than 650. The project worked at 19 sites in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Organisers linked interview sites to ongoing development projects, a strategy that was designed to provide participating agencies with new, village-authored extension and evaluation materials - as well as to draw on relationships that had already been established with the people. The sites were also selected to cover a wide range of tribal, economic, and social groups. They included refugees (political and economic), pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, farmers in rainfed areas, farmers in irrigated riverine areas, and fishermen. The initial programme plan involved talking only with ageing men and women; as the project progressed, organisers began including younger people to enable comparison of perspectives across generations.

The first task of the project was to prepare a guide for interviewers that outlined a standard methodology and included a draft questionnaire. The questionnaire was tested and refined in consultation with development agencies, academics, and interviewers. Even after the final draft was prepared, interviewers were given scope to exclude any questions they felt unsuitable - questions that might strike some as neutral, such as "How many children do you have?", may strike some interviewees as offensive. Questions were also shaped to cohere with the prevailing political, social, and environmental conditions of each particular country and site.

Because cultural and religious influences in these countries tend to inhibit communication between the sexes, organisers sought one male and one female interviewer for each site. This proved challenging, both because of cultural constraints restricting women's freedom to travel and because of the lesser work experience and confidence on the part of female interviewers. More capacity building beyond the 3-day training programme was often required for these women. Training for both male and female interviewers featured role play (the new interviewer would also play the part of the respondent). Before the interviewers began, organisers identified the various groups in the community to ensure that the interviews talked to a wide spectrum of people (not simply their own friends, relatives, or neighbours). In most instances, the interviewees were contacted through respected members of the community (the village chief or head of the women's committee), a strategy designed to encourage participation.

Conducted in private homes or under the shade of a tree, the interviews lasted between 40 minutes and 2 hours. To prevent fatigue on the part of interviewers, no more than 3 thorough interviews were conducted in one day, with an obligatory break after 5 days of interviewing. Some of the questions highlighted by these interviews were: what was the way of life? what was the land like? how and why has it come to its present, desertified state? how and why do Sahelian farmers and nomads keep going in the face of such odds? The interviews were recorded on cassette, with supplementary notes taken, and later translated into French or English. A selected number of these interviews were published in At the Desert's Edge: Oral Histories from the Sahel. Click here for a summary of that publication.

Environment, Agriculture, Indigenous Knowledge, Ageing.

According to organisers, environmental and economic pressures in the Sahel have combined to create a period of "unprecedented social dislocation". Over the last 2 decades, prolonged drought and man-made environmental degradation have led to successive famines and accelerating desertification. In addition, social change has been rapid. Many young villagers now have access to formal education, which has contributed to their perception of traditional knowledge as "out of date". Organisers claim that "academic analysis of economic, social and physical change, while it may be objective, lacks the authenticity of first-hand testimony and fails to capture the important subjective aspects of these upheavals".

Organisers report that the project did not recover as much specific indigenous knowledge as intended. This may reflect the fact that people of the Sahel, organisers explain, do not share Northern researchers' desire for specificity and quantification (e.g., the question "How many hours does it take to grind your corn" may be answered, "I begin when I return from collecting the water and finish when my husband returns from the field"). However, despite these constraints, organisers say that the interviews describe a wide range of environmental knowledge and traditional farming and pastoral systems. The stories also provide a fuller picture of community history and social evolution than they anticipated. Organisers also say that interviewing work conducted by extension workers has created links with new communities and has itself served as a training tool.