Participatory Video, Giving Voice and Respect to the Epistemic Sovereignty of Communities in Rural Zimbabwe

Peter Makamba,Peter Vhoko,Janneke Van Dijk,Gertjan Van Stam,Chido Matewa

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-19115-3_10

Peter Makamba, Peter Vhoko + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19115-3_10

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Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
Citations: 3	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: National AIDS Council, Women's University in Africa

Abstract

To inform program development in health in the rural areas of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe, Ministry of Health and Child Care authorised cooperating partners to execute participatory video projects in rural districts in Masvingo Province. The Participatory Video process was a result of the desire to go beyond prescribed, non-participative or cultural insensitive data gathering methods. Two videos were produced that significantly shaped thinking of stakeholders being informed on health-seeking behaviours and utilisation of services. This use of Information and Communication Technologies proved a fruitful way to engage, interact, and develop public conversations, giving a voice to formerly disenfranchised groups (e.g. ostracised religious groups or ‘closed’ communities’). Participatory Video is recognised as a culturally aligned method appropriate for a setting other than the West.

Highlights

Health research in the context of African rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa often uses extraneous approaches that leave little space for indigenous, rural perspectives [1, 2]
Participatory Video (PV) can be instrumental to such epistemic justice, where it relies upon local community dialogues and community conversations that are effusive, addressing broad subjects expansively
Through the inclusiveness and openness of PV, members of all groups in the communities could participate and engage in discussions. This extended case study of the use of Participative Video shows its feasibility in rural Zimbabwe

Summary

Introduction

Health research in the context of African rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa often uses extraneous approaches that leave little space for indigenous, rural perspectives [1, 2]. Data collecting procedures observe a distance between the researcher and the researched Such approaches can be perceived as alienating, as the methods rely upon normative epistemologies that obscure local, dynamic and integral ways of knowing [3]. Authors represent groups of community members and present the background, the context, and the cases and lessons learned from utilising participatory video in a health context. Participative Video is participatory in that those involved are actively engaged participants and actors rather than ‘objects of observation’ and ’sources of data’ [14] It avoids extractive research, where the primary target is the increase in knowledge in an external researcher [15]. Contemporary reports of PV practices mainly discuss cases where cameras are being provided or used by people of the community This situation allows community members to produce works from local agency ‘reading reality through the camera’. It is a social one, where the complex role-plays with stakeholders, communities, and national authorities interface with the use of technologies

Two Cases of PV in Masvingo Province

Process

Content

Discussion

Conclusions