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Women Researching in Africa pp 109–128Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Reflections on the Dilemmas of Feminist Fieldwork in Africa

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Abstract

The feminist dilemmas of fieldwork in Africa are explored in this personal retrospective reflection on fieldwork conducted in Zimbabwe in the mid-1990s on the role of women in its anti-colonial liberation struggle. Lyons examines the challenges faced by the researcher in grappling the identity politics of ‘who can speak for whom’; the political issues of being a white, Western, middle-class, educated, female researcher examining women’s issues in Africa; and dealing with the basic logistics and travel requirements. By listening to the voices of women and enabling them to be heard within history, this chapter asks if any ‘woman’ researching in/on Africa has the emancipatory potential to challenge the dominant colonial and postcolonial discourses that have determined historical texts.

The title for this chapter was inspired by Diane Wolf (1996), and this chapter is based upon the prior publications of Tanya Lyons (1999a, b; 2004). An earlier version of this chapter was also presented at the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP) 2016 Annual Conference—“Africa : Moving the Boundaries”, University of Western Australia, Perth, 5–7 December 2016.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia

    Tanya Lyons

  2. Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Tanya Lyons

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  1. Tanya Lyons
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Correspondence to Tanya Lyons .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

    Ruth Jackson

  2. Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

    Max Kelly

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Lyons, T. (2019). Reflections on the Dilemmas of Feminist Fieldwork in Africa. In: Jackson, R., Kelly, M. (eds) Women Researching in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94502-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94502-6_6

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