Abstract
Based on an expressed need in the past few years for an appropriate research methodology for colonized peoples, this article proposes a way of conducting research that is faithful to the essential tenets of the African culture. The article delineates principles of a community-based participatory approach to research in Africa. After first outlining the essential tenets of a community-based research (CBR) that are relevant for research projects in Africa, the article argued that the existing CBR lacked a specifically African philosophical basis. It explained the uniqueness of the African philosophy. It then summed up the research principles based on that philosophy. Last, the challenges of conducting such a research study in Africa were outlined. Despite the African emphasis of the overall approach, this proposed methodology may be employed in similar settings where issues such as decolonization are important variables in the research strategy.
Highlights
There has been an expressed need in recent years for what has been referred to as a “decolonised methodology.” The term refers to a way of studying “peoples and nations whose own histories were interrupted and radically reformulated by European imperialism” (Smith, 2012, p. 19)
For the “scientific” minded, this relationship to the physical and non-human world would be interpreted as animism, nature worship, and earth cult. Such an interpretation would reflect a lack of appreciation of the symbolism of the African culture—for such cults/nature worship are not true of the villages studied by this researcher: It might be expected that cults of the sun and the moon would play a large part in the life of African peoples, since such cults were of great importance in ancient Egyptian religion
A unified approach to ACBR may not be tenable in the near future. This has been an attempt to delineate some helpful principles of a community-based participatory approach to research in Africa
Summary
There has been an expressed need in recent years for what has been referred to as a “decolonised methodology.” The term refers to a way of studying “peoples and nations whose own histories were interrupted and radically reformulated by European imperialism” (Smith, 2012, p. 19). This brief article outlines the essential tenets of a community-based research (CBR) It points out the relevance of the CBR principles for research in Africa, highlighting examples of adaptation of CBR within feminist and cultural perspectives. Based on respect for the community, CBR attempts to build on such shared values so as to address communal concerns (Israel et al, 1998) It should encompass the socio-cultural factors that affect research. The four principles identified in CBR do not seem to include what we consider as the fundamental elements of an African culture These underlying elements constitute a worldview, which would doubly serve here as the philosophical basis for the research methodology that will be proposed as an ACBR.
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