DISPOSICIONES RELATIVAS A LAS OPERACIONES DE TRANSPORTE
7.9.3 Información de contacto de las principales autoridades nacionales competentes designadas
3.3.1. Historical and Political Context
Research on access to land and water is a sensitive topic due to the history of the field site and the perception of people towards the researcher as a European. People have vivid memories of the phase of resource exploration when the Germans and British measured plots in order to occupy the most fertile land for producing coffee. They also remember that the colonial governments restricted access to resources through establishing national parks. The way in which people interpret the researcher's behaviour is a mirror of their own personal experiences and the stories they've been told about foreigners' behaviour in the past. People with low incomes were
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especially reluctant to communicate with me because of fear that I was a representative of the government or of Europeans who wanted to expropriate land. It took some time to overcome this distrust.The political struggle between the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM - Party of the Revolution) and the opposition party Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA - Party for Democracy and Progress) also influenced my access to interview partners. I agreed upon the research with local political and religious leaders who were CHADEMA members or supporters. My perceived association with CHADEMA hindered access to administrative staff who were appointed by the central government and belonged to CCM. For example, the district water engineer claimed to be unavailable for interviews throughout my field stay.
3.3.2. Constraints Due to Local Taboos
The remote field site and the culture of the Iraqw created special constraints that influenced my ability to collect data. Local beliefs about pollution that apply to women also counted against me. There are several aspects of Iraqw cosmology that keep women away from self-dug wells, swamps and rivers. These include the taboos placed on people in a state of pollution and the fear of pollution spreading through the water in wells. As a consequence, my research assistant kept me away from water sources by pretending he had no time whenever I asked to visit the well with him. When I went alone to wells, people just disappeared because I had broken the taboo against going to the well as a woman. The consequence was that I experienced the exclusion of women from wells and the need for a strong social network of those polluted.
Because of my problems accessing wells, my research was biased toward an investigation of the Catholic-built piped water scheme during the first months of fieldwork. The taboos toward women approaching water sources did not cause a problem when investigating the piped water scheme. Among Catholics it seems to be part of the “good tone” to ignore or overcome “backward traditional taboos” by users of the piped water scheme.
3.3.3. Ethical Considerations
My status as a European woman sent by the government to research access to resources, my use of a GPS tool to measure fields, and my regular presence at land tribunal meetings caused several reactions. I found myself in a complex web of political interests, with actors either trying to use me to ensure a decision in their favour or considering me with caution because of my interest in land.
Actors sometimes exploited me for their own purposes, especially in land conflicts (see also Rössler 2003:153). In most cases I could retreat, but in a few situations I could not. For example, my second trip to a disputed piece of land with the land tribunal concerned a conflict between two parties. The father of the family had died and the sons of the second wife accused the first wife of using land that belonged to them. When we visited the field site on 11 December 2009, I began recording and taking pictures. As I walked around the field with a big crowd of neighbours and friends of the second wife's sons, the first wife called loudly to me and asked me to take a picture of her next to her husband's grave. It was a very symbolic act since she wanted me to freeze the moment when she was standing on her field next to the grave. With that action, she tried to fix her land rights to that field. I could not escape because either I would question her land right by refusing to take the picture or strengthen her land right by documenting it. Finally I took the picture.
Figure 5. Picture of an old woman at the grave of her husband, 16.10.2009.
My presence and behaviour sometimes influenced the process of conflicts. Even though I never willingly interfered in conflict processes and made sure people were aware that I was only observing, my very presence changed the situation. One example is the corruption money in the tribunal and in government offices. Usually it was refused when I was there because the members of the tribunal thought I would interpret it in a negative way or would even report their behaviour. The priest of the Catholic parish spontaneously changed his mind to spell a curse when I showed up. Women quoted me on women’s rights to land. People reacted to my presence and my research topic and thus my presence changed the process to a certain extent.
I made a great effort to follow the ethical guidelines of research. Before collecting data, I informed people of the purpose and aim of my research so they could freely decide if they wanted to participate or not. Another aspect of ethics is the data privacy of actors involved in conflicts. For reasons of data privacy, some but not all names of actors have been changed.
I always kept in mind that my behaviour is very important to subsequent researchers. If I do honest and correct research and respect data privacy, later researchers will meet more open