- In regard to the your ventures, how does the African context present different challenges than the american context. Give three examples.
In venturing Sierra Leone my group will be faced with an entirely different culture and will be forced to understand and adapt to those differences in order to be effective. The first major challenge I forsee is the struggle of learning to gain the trust of the people we encounter and wish to interview or film. I imagine this being a problem because in Sierra Leone, from my current understanding, the climate around pregnancy and women’s issues is still one shrouded in secrecy and often willfully ignored. If we were to simply come in and treat the culture like the streets of New York then we would likely not get far. Another problem I see could be the lack of medical professionals and the overworked schedules of the ones still there post civil war. Unlike in America where you can simply make a call to your local hospital and ask to talk with a doctor the situation in Sierra Leone has rendered access to doctors increasingly challenging. We would need to plan far in advance to make contact with medical professionals on the ground and work with them finding time to give us a boots on the ground perspective. Finally, the last major challenge we might face in Sierra Leone that differs from any problem we could face in America is learning to adapt to the local concept of time. In the United States we view punctuality with the utmost reverence, while in Sierra Leone the use of time as an indicator to meet or do something is often much looser. We would need to adjust to the difference and accept the cultural difference in order to best see the country through more objective eyes and not alienate people we meet along the way.
- In regard to the your ventures, how does the African context offer different resources than the American context. Give three examples.
We will face vast differences in what material support we can expect to receive or bring to Sierra Leone. For starters, we must be much more cautious with camera equipment and other technical devices. This is because, unlike in America, we will not have easy access to replacement parts or repairs and a mistake could set us back weeks or even threaten the trip entirely. Another difference in resources could be the aforementioned lack of doctors again. If any of us get sick or injured we would be in a much more precarious situation and would have to scramble to receive medical care on an already overburdened system. Finally, the last potential major resources problem we might encounter might be making sure we keep a close count of our cash and spending. I am not entirely sure how accessible funds are in Sierra Leone but i imagining it being much more difficult to acquire new cash if our initial funds run out. I know Liberia has a problem providing hard cash to citizens and am curious if Sierra Leone is the same way.
- Along a similar vein of question one, the issues of cultural differences and struggles can have a strong impact on our project. The first problem, which was referenced in question one is the cultural stigma around women’s health and pregnancy. This will make it much harder to interview and connect with future mothers and will make gathering first hand accounts, which are essential to our documentary, more challenging. Another cultural issue that could affect our project is specifically the focus of the child during the birth and the cultural stigma that places on caring about the women’s health. This could make it so finding people who understand the concerns we wish to raise and bring light to are harder to find because the principal focus of the child has penetrated so deep into the culture. Finally, the divide between rural and urban cultures in itself will be a challenge because they are so drastically different and we must understand both, while also figuring out how to present both perspectives.
- In fact, we still face many of the same problems that I listed above here in America. For starters, the idea of women’s liberation and focusing on women’s issues is still lagging behind here. This can be seen in both how women’s issues, like sexual harassment and assault recently, have been attacked and called out as “fake news” and America still lags greatly behind the rest of the developed world in regards to maternal mortality rates. Misogyny also plays into the second point I made before regarding the focus on the child during pregnancy. America is still wearing a great war over abortion and contraceptive use. These issues are also very pronounced in Sierra Leone where few people use protection and abortion is illegal everywhere. The similarity is clear and both here and in Sierra Leone the focus on “saving the child” prevents women from getting the care and attention they need. Finally, the urban/rural divide seen in Sierra Leone, while less pronounced here, is still a stark issue and seems to make itself seen every election cycle. America has many different subcultures and depending on if you live in rural nebraska or NYC you will most likely have drastically different belief systems and lifestyles. If we understand all these issues and how they relate back to problems in the contemporary US we will have a much better chance of overcoming the situations once we are in country.
5.Despite all the cultural situations that might be a hindrances to us conducting our fieldwork, there remain several key cultural practices that might end up being advantageous to our research if we can harness them in the right way. The first of these practices is the long meal times with a focus on community. Through this we could form stronger bonds with the people in country than we ever could by just talking to them in a professional setting. We could also take advantage of the more relaxed perception of time to better fit into the culture and use the time to get our bearing at a particular situation/event before going in so we have a better chance of performing well and doing the research we need to do. Finally, while it is less common in America, the use of grease payments in certain situations might give us fast access to more exclusive sources and places we might otherwise not be able to gain expose to.