Abstract:
This chapter argues that research, as any other academic endeavour,
is a highly charged and contested space. It posits that research as it
currently stands, is a dictated process that is given direction and life
through acceptance and acknowledgement by western scholarship that
has bothered not just the indigenous and formerly colonized, but has
also dictated what research is and how it is supposed to be carried out.
The chapter points out that research is not new to indigenous
communities as they have through observations and experiments,
carried out research prior to the onslaught of colonialism and its
research approaches. It posits that research that is devoid of putting
place as part of the research methods risks coming up with inadequate
data. It further observes that while there are similarities that may exist
between indigenous and western research methods, especially when
looked at from a qualitative paradigm, there are also substantial
differences. The chapter notes that the starting point of any indigenous
research methods is the place of the self, the researcher in the whole
research matrix because indigenous inquiry is relational. It argues that
relationship is important especially with the person telling the research
story or providing the data. This, the chapter argues, does not exclude
others who may be listening in to the discussion. The chapter, informed
by the author’s experiences in the field, additionally advances the idea
that the researcher who is supposed to be indigenous is part of the story
and his/her being part of the story contributes to how data are
interpreted, which is quite contrary to the western research system
where the researcher is an outsider who does not belong to the group.
