For the pilot survey site, we had selected Tikonko Village, a relatively major rural settlement located about 30 minutes from Bo. Small sedans served as public transport, filling to way over capacity in one of the town’s taxi parks before lurching down the dirt roads to the village center. I surveyed the waiting line of vehicles and quickly noted that not a single car would pass even the most perfunctory of road inspections in the US; windshields were cracked and splintered, windows were missing, and car doors seemed to be hanging by threads. Nevertheless, these cars defiantly continued to take the rough beating the pot-hole stricken roads provided; we indeed arrived at our target area in one piece.
To begin any sort of project or work in the country, one needs the approval of the Paramount Chief, the local leaders responsible for an area somewhat between a US county and state, with nearly absolute local authority for his lifetime term. However, it would be a great breach of protocol to simply approach the chief directly, even though Ali, my second assistant, knew him personally. Thus, we had to engage a local guide who would perform the introduction. One of the youth leaders in town assisted us, and we were granted an audience with the chief and his deputies. The chief spent a good deal of time examining every page of my survey, mumbling that they had values and he didn’t want to see any survey undermine them—apparently past research projects had studied female circumcision and HIV and he wasn’t interested in either. He approved my work, but after the approval when we presented a token of appreciation (about $3), the welcome became much warmer.
I quickly learned how important following the protocol was. The next step of my research, gathering a focus group with the town chief, youth leader, and other important local figures was far easier with the blessings of the paramount chief on our side. Bringing together such a cross-section of the local leadership was a really good way to get an overall picture of the area before we began to focus on individual households. It helped significantly to start with a clear understanding of infrastructure, local governance, active NGOs, community farms and development projects, and even education and health care facilities.
The first survey we conducted was excruciating. It took more than two hours just to get through the social connections—it turned out the household we had selected hadn’t even farmed last year. Obviously much would have to change. Of course this was the exact reason for the pilot—many of the questions took laborious explanations and writing but produced answers completely unhelpful for what I was really curious about. The goal for the week was to create a trimmed down version that painted as complete a picture of a household’s social network and levels of trust and collectivity, as well as capturing their economic performance and assets.
This was a rather daunting task, but my research team was enthusiastic, trying questions and versions all day and then coming back to the hotel to meet late into the night to discuss revisions. I guess this would be a good time to introduce the team I am working with. I’ve already mentioned my lead companion, Sparrow. The man is a fascinating companion—in addition to the research, I am constantly learning first-hand history from him. He’s not only a virtual encyclopedia, but he also personally knows most of the political and military leaders from the war days and today. He is particularly interested in entering politics himself in the future, and seems to really enjoy this opportunity to talk to people, diagnose the problems with the government today, and think of all sorts of solutions. His younger brother Ali is also very bright and lots of fun. Ali is full of questions about everything American. I was quite amused by his description of the annual US diversity immigration visa lottery that as a game that he plays annually. Though he has no real desire to live in the States permanently, he would love nothing more than a visit. Both Sparrow and Ali have never ending schemes to make money, and I am often promised a cut! I have to say, I am pretty tempted much of the time, and I could definitely live here! The last to join us was Abu, the quietest of the three, but certainly brilliant. Having studied applied ecology until the war interrupted his university tenure (so many in the country had to stop their studies at all ages—and things are very slowly returning to normal, with twenty year-olds still in the equivalent of 9th and 10th grade even today), he is extremely familiar with agriculture, the land, and farming practices throughout the country. Working together with these three men, I am really confident that I can collect quality data and make the local connections I am looking for.
By the end of the first week, we had begun to see results. The survey was down to a bit over an hour, we were seeing interesting variations, and on the side hearing fascinating stories of how life has changed over the years. As a team everyone was becoming really involved. All four of us were really interested in the results—it was great to see everyone so invested in the investigation. Further, we were learning together the best ways to implement the professional research techniques of random respondent selections, confidentiality protections, consent scripts, and data recording. As a white researcher, there were lots of misconceptions floating among the villagers we worked with—everybody’s first question was how would the benefit? Certainly a perfectly reasonable question, but it was important for us to make clear that we weren’t bringing any development projects, both to avoid false expectations and ensure we got honest responses. Still, since we paid small tokens to our respondents, there was some real jealousy from those who weren’t selected for interviews and we often saw multiple wives or friends invited to interviews in an attempt to raise the payout.
A couple of early observations: I’m seeing a great deal of trust, especially in one of the smaller settlements we have been working in, but I am not really seeing this translate into greater marketing control or even higher market participation. There seems to be the cultural element of unwillingness to surrender one’s individual control despite the professed preference for collective action. This was something I ran up against repeatedly in Uganda and will certainly have to think about all summer. Is the cultural desire for control changeable? Does it need to be changed for the villagers to succeed in the market? Food for thought…
On the anthropological side, it has been interesting to begin to situate the war and its role in national history. I’m not seeing the physical violence as the real moment of transformation in the country, but more of a final manifestation of the structural violence the corrupt regime preceding the war created. Not surprisingly, the rebel fighting was initially due in large part to the isolation and disempowerment most people in the country felt as the government bankrupted the country. However, as one of my history books notes, though the country was ripe for revolution, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), did not know how to lead it, instead reaping terrible physical devastation that made permanent much of the structural isolation by destroying the country’s infrastructure completely.
A humorous anecdote really shows how completely the infrastructure is lacking now. On one of our trips back from the village the local police post stopped our car to tell us that the motorbike ahead of us had committed some sort of violation, they were very upset, and they wanted the driver to come back. Without bicycles, let alone vehicles, there was no chance to give chase, and without telephones or radios of any kind there was no chance of informing the city police, so this was the only way to attempt to enforce the law. Our old drive, Pa Joe, dutifully sped off to try to catch the guy, who easily outdistanced our battered car, but our driver managed to wreck his engine on the chase and ended up out of commission for the next several days.
It is the beginning of the rainy season now, and every day I am seeing the change in weather—but it is not entirely unwelcome. When it is not raining here it is unceasingly hot as hell, usually with little breeze fore relief. Worse, on days between the rains the humidity hangs like a hot, wet towel, smothering everything. The storms bring cloud cover and a bit of welcome cool air. However, these are real, long-lasting, heavy rains that pound for hours, and I’m told the rains will soon intensify—hours of rain for days on end. While the relief from the burning heat is quite welcome, this will certainly make travel more difficult, turning all dirt roads to often impassable slop.
So, it has certainly been an eventful ten days here. With the pilot done, I feel like we have a survey everyone is happy with. Saturday was spent collectively planning our next weeks of work in the rural southern village where we’re headed, followed by buying supplies, running errands, making copies, and generally preparing to leave all forms of communication for the next two weeks. We concluded with a night and rather scandalous fun at one of the clubs in town—perhaps more on dating, the hook-up culture, adultery, prostitution, and other such topics at a later date.
There were no vehicles to the village on Sunday, so our last day in town was a relaxing opportunity to catch up on some background reading and finish all preparations. I’ll conclude just by sharing how much I love researching so far. The overall fascination of working all the time to dig and find the answer to puzzling social and economic questions is really gripping. It is exciting, my ideas are constantly changing, and my team loves to debate what we see. It is a bit daunting to be setting off for two weeks with the work really counting now, but we’re ready.
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