Research Practice in Connections: travel and methods

44 • Danielle de l ame

Republic of Rwanda (20 10) RUlanda Viilon 2010. Kigali.

Reynrjens, F. ( 1985) PO/woir t't droit all RWtlnda. Ttnu rt n: .\1USCl' Royal de rAfrique u nrral e.

Rukebesha, A. (1978) "Ll communic.llion dans le Rwancb ancicn," Gflutr~ d~ la PmJr dr Langltr Fran(tliu (27-28): 14- 16.

Rukebesha, A. (1985) &oliriJm, ,, commlm;enl;o" JOC;" /'. / , cm du R,,,",,da. IGgaJi, Prin [er Sel.

Ruzibi 7..a, A. j . (2005) Rwanda. L'hiJroirr Irrr~'r. Paris: Panam a.

Saur, L. (2004) Lr sahrr, la mochrtrr rr Ir goupillon. Dn (/ppf/rmons dr Ffl tonfl flU

gl1/ocid~ nuandaiJ. Bierges: Mols.

Sirven , p. (1984) La Sous-urbanisotion rr I~f /Jillrs dll Rwanda rr dll lJurtmd,. T hese de

DOCtoral d 'etal en geographic SOUl enue a I' Unive rsil e de Bo rdeaux, 1 ~B4. Smith, p. (1997) "Les tambours du silence," L'Hommr 143; 5 1- 16.1.

Stallle)' (1890) I" Dar/mt Africa, London; S, Low, Marslon, Searll' & Rh'inglO ll .

Steering Committ ee for Emergency Assistance 10 Rwanda ( 1996) Th~ Im~rf/(lfioTlfll RefpOllU to Conflict and Cenorid~, Lmons from ,he RltIonda E\prrif'llcl'. Copenhagen: DANIDA.

Srrarhern. M. (1996) "CUlling Ihe Ncnyork. " journal of thr ROJal Amhropologiml Soc;'ry 2(3), 5 17-535.

Taylor. C. (1988) "The Concept of Flow in Rwandan Popular Medicine," Social Scimcr and Mi'dicinr 27( 12): 1343- 1348.

Tripp A. M. , R, Lemarchand , A. Habimal1a , A. Songo lo, C. ewbu ry & D. de L1JllC

(2005) "ASR Focus. Commentaries 0 11 Maric BC3Irice Ulll utes i's Book SlIrlliving th~ Slnllghtrr," Africfln Studirs Rel)iew 48(3): 89- 14 3.

Umutesi, M-8. (2004) Survilling thr Sloughtn , Th~ OrdMI of a Rwandall Rtji'g~~ ill Zaj"'~. Madison: Univcrsiry of Wisconsin Press.

Uvin , p. (998) Aiding Violrna , Thi' Drorlopmrm Emu prift' il1 RllInnda. Wcs!hardford : Kumarian Press.

Vambe, M. T (2008) "AtllobiogmphicaJ Rcprcsem;u ions of lhe RW<lnda Genocide and Black Diasporic Ident ities in Mrica. " A/rit'all find Black DiaJPora J (2); 185-200.

Vansina . j. (2002) Al1trudrnlJ to Modem Rwol1da: rhr Nyigil1ya Kingdom. M:1dison; \'(!jsconsin Universiry Press.

Vanwa.lle. R. (982) "Aspeclcn van naalSVorming in West-Rwanda. " A/rica- unmrrn 28(3),64-78.

CHAPTER 2

Research Practi ce in Connections: Travels and M ethods

Mirjam de Bruijn and Inge Brinkman

In troduction

I ' J , Rom uald Fonkoua (1998, In rhe edired volume Les (uscollrJes a~ lIoyage, . h

. h loration travel lng as r e cen-5-10) iJ1(roduces travel lite rature, Wit exp . I d

C h £as ination surrou nding trave an tcr o f social ana lys is. H e re rers to t cc . ,.. .

I, d d 'scovery T h iS perspecnve IS Sllnt -the rela t ionship between t rave Ing all I . . h ff Ia r TO Ih:l t o f rravelers a[ t1e turn 0 t 1e k d to I f I rwen nerh century w 0 set 0 to

discover rhe world , TO expenence r I n I I iter . h' gs thar we re un nown an new

them. Fonkoua adds a no ther perspecn ve to , If h (" h basis of the ' rhe d iscoverer name y, t 1e wr -

) I . . I 1d travellfse t at rorms [ e rraveler (If'romallcier. I' IS, 111 r 1e Cl , '. b' I F koua po ints . . I I d rI e novelis t 0 VIOUS y. as on wrlttng by the et lnograp 1er an 1 . db I "' n the orher

cl I · . also constructe y peop e I OUt, discoveries an trave w riting are . . T h const ruction " '. I ' I ays about Interaction. e wo rld and In thIS sense rrave IS a w'. I cl ' rneys and we

f I d I Iy inspired by rrave an J OU o rhe world in r lose ays was arge . .. d , polaring ino . f " vel as discovery an ex ra are now raking up rhis no tion 0 t ra

Our own constructions of the wor ld, aI d h 'ng by the begin-. b . f h graphy was rea y c angl The inrerpretatlve aSIS 0 et no . . d thus on space

. . h . h the focus on mnerary an I1mg of rhe twenrtel century, W it h " h he ethnographer

'fi I e1y Ut ere were t shifring toward a speCl c pace, nam . h , r of analysis bur I· as no longer t e cen e "arrived." This meant [har trave JIlg w . A Crffi rd (1 992)

b ' more Imporranr. s I 0 that "the fidd" as a conce pt ecame e\er

"M b'l Africa Revisi,ed~ k of ,he \'(lotro program J 0 J e Thh chapler \v:tS wrim:n in the fram~~wor 'ffm bileafricarcvisired.wordpress.com/. (W 0 1.65,3 10.00). For more inform:mon. sce hnp. 0

46 • Mirjam de Bruijn and Inge Brinkmilll

no ted, no smdies exist of the planes on which Ihe ~ Ihll ographl'r ,lrrived in "the

field " and the itinerary itself staned 10 di sappea r frolll the n.lrr,lt iVl·. ·I'r.\veling

no longer formed the bas is on which one was 10 COlnC 10 .111 llndcr~tanding of the world. This more recent rype of ethnography becamc .111 c\tabl ished

genre, with it s own set of methods and norms. It has also become a crucial

source of information for colonial ru le. and this has hel'1l \\'ell - r~'carched . . Historical studies on Africa genera ll y stancd later than l·tllIlOgr.lphy. Ini­

tially rhere was a focus on travels of discovery and. with n"l ~oning fro m a

Eurocentric perspective. the emphasis was on Europe.1Il initiativcs in"- "discov­

ering" new horizons. Livingsrolle. Stanley, and others became f.1 1ll0m within

thi s Eurocel1lric perspective bur. by the 1 960s. att ention in Afric.lIl histon'

was shifting to African people and th tir past. This was a fortunate move and

meanr a sh ift toward :t more static conceptual iz;l( ion of both mcthods and themes.

. It is interesting that rhe earlie r notion of "tr;1\'el as discO\'{' ry" retained

as aura for .ll1an~' colon ial office rs. Colonia l repon s often take travel experi­

ences 3S their POll1t of departure and explain Ih(' cuhures th:u :tre "discovered" from a travel I)crsl)eniv,' 1'0 g , I 'I Ai 'I I . nu uest co ollla 0 cers In sout ll'aS tCrn Ango a. for .ex3I11ple, brgdy based their understand ing of rhe area that was under the ir rule on travel exper iences (sce de Almcid:t 1936). Travel jo urnals became

part of the knowledge of bus inesses or geographical societ ies in Europe (see SchcStokanr 2003) and such repons ll1:ty have contribured to the image of Cameroon and sOIHheast A I f I d' 'Ai I' . ngo a as are3S 0 ollg ISt;1Ilces. dl lCU ties, and 10neilJleSS but also of I 'I b'l ' f' , ' . ' , r le a\'al a I ay 0 Imporran[ resources and the ir explOitation possibilities wh' h ~ I I d hi ' ' . ' IC. o r examp e, e [0 [ C P anta[lon econom ies In Cameroon T his IJe rsp"ct', I I 'I I'" .

. . ... 1\ e a so s lOWS III [ le co on tal raSClllaflon for over-coming and bridging dista d ' I ' "I , nces an Imp alltlng new technologies In the rea m of transport and cO l11l11unic r' I' d 'd' , a IOn. \.oa s, motorize vehdes. telephone lines, and the tc/egralJh were 311 de" ,ed ' del 'b' ' I "

. • d1 \ \ 011 erru COntrl lItlOns 10 'deve opment and while these new technol g' b" ' d 'd" 0 ICS were elllg IIlt roduced, imaginations an I eas about native cultu ., d '" '1' . " b f '. res an CIV I Izauon lended with rhe making 0 colonial reality.

A century l:tcer mobility , nd b k ' , h' . • ' .1 space are ac ' 111 vogue In erhnograp IC

Wntll1g and arc receiv ing ever 1110 " I " . . • . A re ;It[enllon In llsrencal wrHlng on Africa.

spate of studies has appeared rh k " h .." . 'I' h at ra e r e Hlnerary as their focal pomr.

e recent work ofUrr)' (2007) b 'l ' . _ stresses mo I Ity. or the lack of it , as be ing far 1110re crucial In 1110St peopl ' I- I I h . " "

. es I\es t lan I e nOtion of place. It is thus much more logical ro study the (' ) bT f I " I . " TI . un mo I I ry 0 peop e :tnd goods than of a certain p ace. l iS new emphasis follows a long debate in anthropology abour the

concept of "th fi Id " I h' f . .. e e ,,' n t elr amous article. Gupra & Ferguson (I992)

ll ues[loned the field as the co re of (he erh h' nograp IC encoun ter. In their view,

Resea rch Practice in Connections • 47

ethnographers study culcure by going re places: "rhe (leld. " Thc question, however, is whether "the field" as a "s ired place" is a fruitful not ion to ado pr

in rhe study of "cult ur('." Should understanding culture nor be spariali led

instead of sited (cf, Olwig & Hastru!' 1997)?

As a wa\' ouc of rh is dilemma between space :lJ1d place. Appadurai (1991)

proposed rile notion of deterrirorialized sc:tpes. 1\1uch earlier. nerwork analy­

sis had been used as a way to understand sociery (and nor so much culture)

in sociology. The ncrwork analysis app roach came to be connecred ro dis­

cussions o~~ globa lizarion . and ':nerwork societies" (Cas te/Is 2004) were seen

in rhe light of glob'll deveiopmeJ1(s in rhe realm of digital Informat ion :tnd

Communication Technologies (lCT). Ne twork analysis has heavily inAlI ~

enced debales in anthropology and the study of sp:tce has shift ed toward the concept of "nocbl points ," as used in nerwork analys is {Q inte rpret the

meetino of "the local" and "the glob;ll" (er. van Binsbergen et Ill. 2006). . "

M igr'lI ion has always been one of the major topics in ethnographic writing

(Olwig & Hasrrup 1997). In Africa n histo rical stud ies, rra nsport, relecom­

municlI ions. and (ech nologies in che realm of mobility arc receiving ever

more attention (Gl'\vald. Lun ing & va n \X/alraven 2010). Odd ly, (his h:ts not

immediat ely led ro a questioning ei ther of "the field" or of the situaredness of

culture. Migr<nion uSt'd to be regarded as an anomaly, a tempora ry condition fro m which people would retu rn to a seden tary life and it was only in the lace

1990s tha t this idea was criti cized and rhe pri nciples of an anthropology of mobility were laid (Sabzar 20 10). Migrario n is considered a normal con~ i ­[ion of life in many cases (de Bruijll l't Ill. 2001). The cririque on 5et tl e~ life

as the norlll and the sHldy of migration of people have led to an emphaSIS on

transna tional communit ies and processes of social relating. This theoretical shift from place ro space has en tered mainstream anthro­

pology :lncl our understanding of "culture." But, methodological ~ y speaking, ' I I ' 'I I '" " rhe sense how can we study such spaces of socm re aung. s t 11S space III .

of ;'pract iced place," as was suggested by de Cen e:tu (1984: 1 17)? Do.cs rhls

new appro:lch co nstitllle a return 10 mobility and travel as cen ~ral III our

unde rstanding of the world as in Fonkoua's an alysis? T h is would 1111 ply rh at

nor only our own travel experiences bur especiall y those of others matter for

d I " d I as a way out · research . Some scholars have arcempte mu [Islte researc 1. .

no longer did the "field " cons isr of one place bur it was conceived of as

b ' I ' I' I b ' d k 't n va rious places at (he same clI1g mu tip e. wlrh researc 1 elng Ull erta en ' . . . f ses of globalizat ion would time. In thiS wa)'. a fuller tIHerprctatJon 0 proces . .

hoperull}' be arrived a!. As Feldman (20 11: 397) argues, " Il [Multi SIted

h 'I' f I I 'mmcrsion while acknowl-er nographrl emphaSizes t 1(' expenence 0 oca I .' d . ,. .' h G I b I " Yet rhls will not suffice e glng [he local s disaggregation lino t e 0 a. .

.. "." h foc ll s of atren[lon Vuorela as a mcthod as It stili proposes site as ( e .

48 • Mirjam de Bruijn and Inge Brinkman

(2002) explai ned [hat the places at bOlh ends of the journey arc studied in Transnational Studies too: rhe "in · berween" is left our. She argues fo r more ~mphasis on what she calls the "transnational habi tus": rhe li vcd experiences 10 space, the his[Qries during the itinerary. It was seen as one thing to poinr

out that many societ ies are best understood as tr:tveling cuhures (Clifford 1992) bur quite anmher to study such societies on their own terms.

Connections and linkages are central in this vo lume. Such linkages may be formed through commun ica tion, which implies travel . especially in societi es tha~ are depicted today as being transnational . mobi le, and dispersed in space. ThIS suggests nor only physical travel but also the travel of ideas and dis. Courses. Examples of such studies that emphasize the overcomi ng of distance ~s pan ?f the research field itself are limited but increasing in number. T he lI1nova tlve ~thnography by Amsclle (200 1) is an exa mple of an ethnography on conn~ctl o n s as he follows the it ineraries of a ritual. Another example is Hofmeyrs (2004) book on Bunyan's Tbr Pilgrim} Progrrss that deals with ~h e tra;e1s and translation of a miss ionary book . Li ng's study on the mobil ­Iry. of Ideas .and ~i scourses has informed a study on cl imate change by de Wit ~20 1 .1) In which she shows that the itinerary changes a discourse so [hat [~e Sltuafl onal momem of the discourse always remains an unforeseen pmc. lice. A recem study on m'g ' b Afi ' d E

• '. 1 ration erween fl ca an urope concentrates on I ~lnerafl es (Schapendonk 20 11 ) and it is dear that new transport , infor. manon, ~nd communication technologies are heavi ly inRuencing mobility patterns I ~ the twenry· firs[ century. T his is nor re say that mobility and its related actions of cravel and communicarion are signs of "modernity": people

h~ve ahvays.~oved and created connections between places just as technolo­gies t~ar faClit rate such connect ions have played a role throughout history roo (cf. Gltelman & Pingree 2003) T h " d ' " ' " . . e mo ern lry Interpreta tion fa ds to draw on the "ch past of this I' ki ' , d I h ' , ,

III ng 111 soclery an t le Isto ncal links between new and old panerns of communication. Con nections can be stud ied in archives as well.

b For Afri~nist. historians, the mobiliryof ordinary people in thei r daily lives . ecame an Issue In the 1970s and 19805 when social history was also becom­Ing a noreworthy trend in African histo ry with labor migration to the mines.

~~~nts and l a~ge farms being imerpreted historical ly. The African diaspora, Afi ' , an~ extie, and the li nks between urban and ru ral Africa have entered

r~~~ hIstorical stud ies, although only to a limi ted ex tent. It is clear that mo I Iry as a theme in African history is growing and related themes such as ~Pkaceand landscape (Luig & Von O ppen 1997; Howard & Shain 2005), are I eWlse ga thering momentum.

As far as purely archival rese h' d . , . . . arc IS concerne , It IS obvious that research aCtiV ities were rela tively , d' ,

StatiC an stationary. HIstorians have tried to

Research Practice in Connections • 49

ilHerprct mobil iry in the past by si rcing and reading in a bu ilding where documents are stored. Although metaphorica lly rravel ing in time, no real movernelH is at stake in [he case of archival stud y. O ral history is usuall y different: reading imroductions to oral hiStory books often shows that some physica l Have! was involved. Such travel is not the center of any methodolog­ical reRection, nOt even if it concerns literature in which hisrorical method is an explicit item . T hus in Adenaike & Vansina's (1996) volume on historical fieldwork in Africa , the index mentions all kinds of subjects from fie ldwork duration 10 the translation of cul tu re and from oral rradit ions to rhe political situation , bur no expl icit reference is made to mobility and research. Rela­tions between h istorical method and mobi li ty have hitherto remained largely untouched.

T he authors of this chapte r, Inge Brin kman and M irjam de Bruijn, are cu r­remly involved in a resea rch program that has communica tion as the cent ral element of the forma tion of communities. Communica tion includes fo rms of u avel bm other forms sllch as mobile telephony too. This chapter con­cent ra tes on travel , as this is still an important way for people ro co nnect and communicate despite all rhe sophisticated technological possibilities that ex ist raday. Travel is part of a society and informs social change. Understand­ing social change incl udes the travel ing itself, being pan of the connection . The [WO experiences presented below relare to ethnographical research both in rhe present and in the past, and how to make the iti ne raries and the travel experi ence parr of the ethnographer's body of data and thus analysis. Travel should become a research merhod. T he case srudies presented are based on

recemly conducted resea rch in Cameroon and Angola. The firs t case study presents Inge Brinkman's arremprs to understand

the mobile cOllllllunity of Angolans li ving on both sides of its borde ~ with Namibia. The crux of the southeast Angolan case is that war raged 111 rhe region frolll 1966 to 2005. Refu gees res ident in neighboring countries hardly had any means of maintaining contact with relat ives and fri ends still in Angola. After 1998 the war beca me less inrensive and peace accords were signed in 2002. This profound change sharply inRuenced parre rns ~f mobil ­ity and social imcraction. As peace and new ICT sllch as the mobile phone arrived approximately ar the same time, they are both associated with new possibilit ies for contact and communication. Fo llowing the roures of a fam­ily network from Windhoek to Rundu to Menongue and then to Luanda, [h is case explores the methodological and interpretative aspects of travel ,

com municat ion. and social networks. The case study in Cameroon relares to the hisrory of a family and how its

members developed their social cohesiveness despite being ~isp~rsed al l ~ver the world. The history of com munication related to colol1lal lIltervenuons

50 • Mi rjam de Bruij n and Inge Brinkman

has been parr of thi s resea rch and it includes the hislOrit's o f travel <lfa l11i lies

over generations. Our mcthodologies were based o n :1rchiv:11 I't·\t',lrch Jnd

o n physically fo llowing hi stor ica l itineraries. Th is c.lse 'i lUdy di~cu sses how

these methods of documentat ion and tr:1vcl in fo rmed our knowledgc of the

mobil iry patterns of these fa m ilics. In reccl11 years Illuch mob i lit~ · has been

invested in the mobile phone and as such mobile phom' rese,lrch it\l.Jf has

become the centra l endeavor of an thropologica l fieldwork. In ~te:ld o f being

rupmres, travel and distance are the social glue o f t h e~c com mun it it', and have

become pan of their ident iti es (er. Venovec 2004). The experien ce.' of tr:1vel

was essenriallO undema nding the working of these CO l1l lllUn i t ie~. I ndced. the

form th is travel [Ook for ourselvcs as resr.::1rchcrs reflt'c ted the cOllllllunities'

hardships, enthusiasm , and (di s)conllections.

Life on the Namibian-Angolan Border: Comfort and Hardship

Inge Brinkman carri ed out fieldwo rk in Rundu in tht' Ka v;tngo region of

Namibia in 1996 and 1997. At the rim r.:, her foc lL s was the n :lliollali ~ t war

in sourheastern Ango la , from whe re her int erlocutors all ha iled. Mostl y poor

and illegal immigrants, none of them hJd a tel ephone and over time she lost

contact with them. She did no t know whe rher they were still living in Rundu

o r had moved co other regions, espec iall y as peace had come to Angob in

2002. The chances were that they hJd gone 10 li ve the re bU I she was par­

ti cularl y keen on see ing dle rwo research asSiSt:llllS she had wo rked with and

hoped to be able 10 fo llow the rou tes of [ravel sht: knew they usuall y too k at the time.

On arriving in \'\Iindhoek, I (I nge) asked abou t t r:1nsport to Rundu and

was immediately discouraged by the owners of the bed and breakfas t where

I was staying from mlVd ing by loca l transport" as rhey deemed Ih is to be

dangerous and uncom fo rt"able. H owever, the next morning I rook a taxi co the bus StOP near rhe Karurura Hospital and asked arollnd fo r tra nspon co Rund u. Everybody kindly ass isted me in findi ng the right minibus, checking

in , paying the ri ght amount , and load ing m y luggage o n board. The whole

process was effi cient and well -o rganized ; we just had to wait a li rtl e while

fo r the minibus to fi ll up. \'\Ihen desc ri bing travel. the focus is usuall y on

the process of moving. Yet wa iting is in many cases an integral pa rt of travel.

Even [he journey itself can at least partly be desc ri bed in terms of wJ iting.

as people doze off or glance through a newspaper as the ca r or bus moves .

~va~(ing to arrive. Active agency is more with the car than with the travders In If.

This is no~ to say rha t rraveicrs are entirely passive. There may be long

moments of stl ence as rhe passengers stare ou t of the window or s leep. But

Research Practice in Connections • 51

people may reach out of the ca r by receiving or Il1Jking a phone call on

their mohile phonc. Th is is a t Ihe same time a mornr.:nt of interactio n in

the car. as the c lller might ask lhe dr iver 10 tu rn down the volul11e of the

music or OIber pt'ople may overhear Ihl.' phone conve rsa tio n. There are usu­

ally also other momentS of itll ('raction in a ca r: people start a conversation.

exchange newsp,lpt'r" sll.lre food, and as k each o ther's names. T here may

be 1ll0mt'lHS of inten sified interactio n bctween passenge rs. A stopover leads

to increased imerJClio n ,1Ild communica tion berween passengers, as does an

ullex pecll.'d I.'vent. such :1S a near accident. On the whole. contac t on rhis

journey remained \u perfi ci.ll: the road was good , the CJr wem fast. ('veryrhi ng

Well t sllloothlr, ,1Ild we arrivr.:d in Rund u safely, From the stories I had been

[old and based on my own experiences. I knew that Ihis journey could have

been 1ll,Itk in :1 ,imiLlr f:1sh io n ten YI.'"Jrs earlier.

In Ru ndu I :.oon me t both of my for mer research ass istants and their fa m­

il ies. I asked Ihcm ,lhoU I the changes in co mmunicatio n they had seen , rhe

possib ilities for rcnewing family ties, the newly opened rra nspo rt fac ili ties.

and their mubi li ry ;md visi t ing patterns. Liv ing in onc of the famil y houses.

I saw (h is hrst h ,Hld, ob:'('fving the changes brought about by peace in Angola

and thr.: new rf.lnspon and commu nica t ion tech no logies . I decided ro follow

the fam ily tr 'lil:. . C~lI:1l1y fa mil y hi sto ry is stati c as it takes p lace in one part ic­

ular gt'ographic locatio n. In rhis case, however, I fo llowed the route o f (hese

fami ly t ics :lnd comhi ned family hi story with the relatively new concepr of

mobility research . T ilt' t;l mily in Rundu gave m e letters and picrures to del iver

re thei r rd at ivl.'".\ in ;vleno nguc in southeast Angola and earl y one morning

I arrived at the bus SlOp in Rundu to wait for transpo rt to Menongue.

Mobi lity research in a margina l region like sourheasr Angola is ve ry di ~e r­enl from Wi nJhor.:k and Rundu where trans po rt is relatively well-organIzed

and th l: l"Q;ld be{\\'t"en the rwo cen ters is rarmac. Firstly, rhe number o f pas­

senge rs Irawl ing is ge lle r:l ll y lower so Ihe time spent wait ing is relatively ~igh and there was nOt t'ven anybody around who was go ing in the sa ll1~ dl ~ec­tion. Onlv Jt 7:.30 did ,1 car :urive. The driver too k my luggage and lIlvll ed

me 10 ge t" in; we then drop ped off hi s gi rl frie nd , went shopping, a nd vi ~ i [ ed his sister. By the lime wc returned to the bus stop we had chaned qUlre a

bit. I knew his name, whe re he was from, and how long he had been a dri~'e r and in thi s sense thi :. ti me spell! "wait ing" for enough passengers to arrJve

Was not wa iting a t all : the dr ive r's errands had been taken ca re of and.w~ had

engaged ill cOllvers,l1i o n. In such circll lllstances , rraveling in anon ynmy IS fa r

I(·ss likely. \Xlh ile waiting for the minibus to fill up, rhe drive r ~nd .[~e pas­

sengers talked about the purpose of their journeys and the ir family ViSItS ~nd 1 cl . r 1 h hared a common destlO<1-a rea )' we were becollllng a group 0 trave s w 0 S , . . . fi 11 1ft R cl at 10·30. The firSt f10n. II was also tiri ng rhough and we na y e un u .

52 • Mirjam de Bruij n and Ingc Brillkman

pan of rhe journey was o n a l armac road a nd 111 0~ 1 of " lI ';:" fell J • A~ few hours we Stopped and the dfiv cl ' ;1 <; ('(I'. (er a ro bu)' goods 1 I cl er an hiS passe n g('r~ bt'f~,l n !O {facie, wen[

at a Dca s(Qre an exch d I I pa rtne r Th' , . '. :mge ( le acC'S! Ill'W<; wit h their trading

, s', IS \\as an IIH ercsClng moment [hat olTered d . I ' . cl ones social nerworks. h ' le: C 1:111(( to expan

. . ( e passenge rs lIHroduccd thei r [e llow lr.1. vc!efs 10 thei r acquaintances and new connections coulcl b 1 A5 (' l11 a(e.

we had left late and stopped for so' . bo did' . 01(' ([ Ol e and J( was .1 long wa)' to the

r er, srarre wo ndering b , . ~ When w fi 11 h 1 a OU t Wlal ( 11ll e W(' wou ld arrive in ,\lellongue.

e na y reac cc the border ir d I - _ cOll{in ui ng a d , Id , rllrne our 1 1a1 Ihe m InI bus was nO(

, n \\ e Wall now have 10 10 k f4 h driver saw rwo Af -k k' 0 o r o r er /11 C:l m of Ir:lJ1spo rl. T he

n aans-spea Ing men ~ G ' -ea rli er and sa id . "" I db rom rOO IIOn( CII1 who ht' had mer

< • IOU la e(( er ask rhe I I You whites I I I h ' 111 W l(' ( le r you can "i l in rhe bakk;e.

a ways l e p eac o ther. You w'" " I _ go straight d M b . I nOI evcn lave [0 p:ly :1nd you wdl

lere. J ay e you wdl eve n bc d . 19 00 -]-h may only arrivc ar 3-00 4-00' l cr~ a l : . e o lher passengers

, . ' o r III ,he 111 0 " A I b was rather con ' - d b' rnrng. 1 t l e o rder. eve ryr hing

ruslng an no ody knew . _I -aspects on the onc h d I 'd I' p.reclsc y what 10 do. l~h cse chaoTi c

an C 10 le lghlcll ed . . b forcing an exchan b I Illl eractlo n e(Wcen [he passengers,

, ge a OUI pans and IJOS ' bT ' v cl d intervenrions o f rh b cl fli' SI I lfI es. ICI a cd 10 th is were Ihe

e or er 0 Cl als and son . , . I I I and dri vers A r . ' le Com,let Wl[ 1 O f 1(' ,. u ave ers . s a IOrelgner, I had ro w . d -cr

Angolan corravele d h N " al[ at a ]II erCI1I COu nter fro m my rs an r e allllb lans h d

only a few cars and I d r' a to go 10 ano ther desk. T here were < < r ley seem c rull Ev - d -

to Menongue on a - d - -d 1 b .' eryonc srarte look Ing fo r cranspon n In IVI ua aSls T h " "

Some of the rravele d 'd I_ k • ' . e we as a gro up h:1 d di sappea red. . rs I III up agalll when Ih cl In another veh icle d 11 f I ey m anage co secure a sea r

an a 0 r lem excel" k I O ne of rhe Afrikaa k ' m c St uc' to ocal public Ir:lIlSport.

, ns-spea "Ing m en I d d 1 cl as I did nor f.1 ncy ". la a ( resse me al rhe bo rder post and

• arnvlI1g III j\1enongue i h 'ddl a p lace ro s ra)' I dec-d d k C • n r e 1111 e of rhe n igh! wi thout

, I e to as lo r a hfr 0 . for me to ferch my I cl . nce across rhe bo rd er, they wa rred

uggagc an I StcPl,cd f h I I - -no longer speak 10 h I our 0 t e oca m nerar)'. I could

• - r e or ler passenge rs a d I I -excep t rhe canvas of d b kk - 5" . n no o nge r o bserved anyrhmg

le a I~. It tmg 11, rh· b k 1 Id anyone. Did I d' e ac " cou no r even lalk {Q . ISCO nnecr? At rhe m om e ,I ..

thiS way, I did no r . \v , h III \ \ len I rook the deCIS ion ro travel carc. we ad nOI m an d

Menongue and so I ' • age to contact family relarives in \\ as nOt Sure about ac cl -

and my back was so e WI I . '. comma atlo n; the road was bum py fa . r . len arn ved In M b

mdy I al ready knew ~ I" . J eno ngue a our 20:00 I found a h ram an car Jer ViSit did

t e rel atives who I h d k an t le nexr ay r wem ro find a fa en messages and ' C

orher travclers had ind d - d piCtures ro r. I later learnt that rhe ee arnvc around 4'00 . h .

On rhe onc hand , I had lefr "the brid . " 111 t e mornlllg. other rravciers could er d ge an d foll owed a route that rhe

not allo r to take 0 h h oppOrtuniries as they I" e hi' . n I e at er, Aexibility and taking

sent r em se Yes IS h - -a c arac(enst lc o f these journeys.

Resea rch Practice in Connections • 53

Alr hough I had lefl the public l11eans o f transport and no longe r followed

rhe famil ies' wa y of travcling. dlC Nam ibian men who allowed me re ride in

the back of their vehicle were: JUSt as local as :lny other Nam ibian. I knew

thar the m embers of the f:1m i!y also occasio nall y used private transport from

their wo rk if they had the opportun ity. Yet, it was obvious thar the hardship

and lengrh of th (· jou rney played a ro le and rhe f.1Ct that r had already trav·

d e-cl from Europe (Q :--.Jamibia , fro m \Xfindhoek to Runclu , and from Rundu

to ~1enongll e. consra n riy meeting new peo ple, new food , new housing, new

localit ies. 10 what limits can academ ics go when doi ng m obile resea rch in

marginal CO IHCxt S? Should I have "STe pped out " more frequendy o r earl ier?

\'\Iou ld it ha ve been difTe rcIH if I had been an Angolan scholar? Or younger?

I had lea rnr a lo t duri ng rhe jo urney. Som e of rhese matters seemed rri vi aJ

and scl f·evidenl b u t expe riencing them had given me deeper understand ing,

in The same way rhat wisdom does no t equal knowing a facr. T he importance

of the road surface . the strai ns o f waiting, the rrading act ivir ies en route , the

way people starred a conversation a nd turned into a group of rra vd ers that

could. however. Ix d issolved in a very sho rt ri me span. the news rhat spread

even afrer arriving in M e nongue: these issues had become clearer and more

vi vid . Obviously it was a pn.:selllis[ impression , giving hardly any hi storical

info rmation . The jou rney helped me understand historica l patterns of mobil­

iry in two W:lys. O ne was by s imi lari ty; I could imaginc rhe ways in which

news could spr('ad, t rading nerwo rks develop, and new contacrs be es tab­

lished . The o ther was, by con t rast, how m uch more d ifficul t t hi ngs would

have been wit ho ut t:lrm ac roads and motorized transport , and if there had

been no money o r sho ps. as it used to be in the past. As a researcher! had also asked quesrions and realized that this possibil ity

fo r t raveli ng had 110t e:x isted prio r to the peace accords, although o ther routes

in to Angola fro m Namibia had been poss ib le since 1996 and M enongue

could be rc:tched by road . From conversar ions with fa mily members r had

al ready learn r a lo t. Aft cr the peace accords, travel to Angola was st ill difficulr

but relatively sec ure .

Then I also wcnt 10 visit them in 2003. I knew them so I was not afraid of go ing la Angola. Before. goi ng 10 Angola was !ike-wow- are you ~o in~ (~ Angola? \X/ill vo u come back alive? Arc you gOI ng to reach your destination. But at Ihe til1l~ we went. you wcre sure you werc going to reach ie

l

In 2003 ir had ta ken rwo full days to reach Menongue as ca rs could not drive

fas[cr than 20 km an ho ur for long stretches bur travel time has been reduced

by half. On arriva l, people reil rheir hosts about these changes and nC\~s .a~~ U( toad co nd it ions. t ravel t imes. hassles at rhc border, new trading posslb rl m es,

54 • Mi rjam de Bru ij n and Inge Brinkman

and diffi culrics in securing transpon from the bo rde r 10 AngoLI <;p reads fast.

T hese "arrival na rrat ives." a genre wit h a conside rable t radition. help people

to situate themselves in the wide r contex t of social Il l'rworks. mobility and

u avei , and econom ic 3nd po litic31 con nec t ions in the widl'f world.

Cameroon's Family Histories and th e Resea rcher: Ex perienci ng linking Technology

In 2006 1 (Mir jarn) staned h istor i ca l ~alHh ropologi c:d resea rch in Anglo phone

Cameroon, curious to unde rst:l.l1d mobil ity in rel :Hion to pos.'>i h ilitic!> re co m­

municate and changes in thc socia l landscape. One o f Ihe re markab le fea tures

of (h is parr of Ca meroon is the amount of traffi c. despite the poor roads.

Travel seems re be pa n of sociery and evcn of being. Buses. wh ich .1fe always

fully booked, have a life of the ir own. One can trade and meet fri ellds but

most importantly travel con nectS and that is what peopk' do all the time; they

connect with the places and people that matte r to them . fo r instance. :H1end­

iog fu nerals and cultural cc1cbr:uions. When I tried 10 understand f.ll1l ily l ies

in th is wo rld of connect ions I soon d iscovered d UI t ravel and being on the

road is pa rt of sll ch a fam ily ne twork. T he only way 10 d iscove r famil y tics and

thei r meanings W3S th rough the experi ence of t ravel (Figu res 2.1 3nd '2.2).

Eth nographic research often de pends on coincidence. O nc such co inci­

dence du ring a resea rch visit in Janua ry 2009 was the d iscovery o f a d i3ry

tha t was in [he possess ion of [he YCllko ng fami ly and had been wr itt en by

thei r father who d ied in 2003. The diary covered the per iod fro m the early

1970s un t il 2003. Ab raham Yenkong, the son of a king (Fo n) fro m the p:dace

of Baab3 , ::t small region on the r\dop plains west o f Bamenda. had been a

police office r who had trained at Sco tland Yard in Nigeria in the 1950s. Dif­

ferent factors in hi s life mea nt that he was no t el igib le to foll ow his fat her,

the Fon. The fi rst o f these was th3 t h is level of schooling had turned him

into a person who was too wel l-ed ucat ed fo r the fond om and the second

was that- and probably mo re importan tl y- h is mother had Aed the palace

in the t 940s to part icipate in church life (see r\ b "i's chapter in this vol ~ ume). Abraham Yen kong, a notab le of rhe paJ ace, thus becam e o ne of the

rrJveling el ites of Baaba. H is work as the head of var ious po li ce postS in

weste rn Cameroon turned him into someone who was pan of the educated

el ite that bui lt Cameroon fo ll owi ng independence. T he fi rst two decades after

independence were full of hope and expectat ions, and Yenkong was a "d evel ~ oper" in thi s period . \'Vhen an econom ic crisis hit Cameroon at the end o f the

1980s and in the early 1990s, Yenkong was already ret ired and had retu rned

to Baaba, though he li ved in ~dop . His subsequent polit ical actions wcre

Figure 2. 1

2009.

55

d ' "

d'pan for Rundu. © Inge Brin km .m. \,\/ indIHkk N,lmibi.l. m in ibuses re;1 r

h' 1 f the r~lIni l \' at a border post. Figure 2. 2 RClIlclll iX'ri ns cOlll muniC:ll ion : dlC' old w 1C C' 0 ,

© Mir i,un dc Hr uiin. 2009.

56 • Mirjarn de Bruijn "1(llngo Brinklll.l n

directed against the incumbent Prcsidt' lH Hi)'.1 :uld ht, ioinn.l Ih e: Oppo!li lion separa tist movement based in 0!igeria.

Here I brieRy describe Abraham Yenkong :md hi~ [llllik':. lif~' in thl' first

rwo decades fo llowing independenn: whc:n Yenkong m'Hri'cd hi, four wives

with whom he had (CIl chi ldren. In 2011 Ihc f;lInil~:" childrl'n li\'(: spread around the world. There is only OIlC: son still livin g in B,\.lh.1. hlll his jour­ney was o ne of failure in edllGu iO Il.l1 tcrm '> so his onh· rnon h.ls bt'en to

rum to tradition :lIld he has become :1n expe rt in tr,lditi{;11:11 medicine. Three

of Yen ko ng's wives arc also in Baaba. T he o ther ch ild rt'll arc in l.bmcnda.

Douala, [he Netherlands, and the United States where thl'\' live with orher

family mem bers. Being spread arou nd the globe d Ol" IlOt m."lkl· them .lm·less

clos~ ly related and tocl:iy the mobile phone a nd the Inte rn et help mai;1tain

r~ l atlons (cr. de Bruijn ('f nl. 20 I O. de Bruijn 2010), In thl' p.lS!. l"'l'!1 [hough

distances may have been short er, thl'}' we rl' no hindr.lIl Cl: to familv life. with

rrav:1 and, letlers being the most important linking technologil':' t1~en, 1 he, d ia ry coyers the rime whe n Abrah:lIll Yenkong worked ill Jiffere nr

places [n rhe South Western I)rovincc of C arncroon as a police officer and is full of Iravel d 0 0 01-1 . " t,rans,po n ,.an Vi sitors. le IraveI was undertaken by him and ht s family, hiS WIVCS 1J\/ed in d iffcrcll[ placl's. hi s child reil werc spread

across the South ,\'\Iesl and North \'\Iesl Provinces, li vi ng wit h variolls r.1l1lily

~l embers and gOing to school in diFfere nt p laces, Reading and n:.d izi ng rhis li fe of travel m ade me I \VI, 1 0 I d bOIO

, , resl ess, W;lS t l]S t rave a n mo I Ity 10 be seen as displacement , JIlstab il iry and co nsidered or instead. as di scuss ions with rhe

ch!ldren revea led, joyfu l and pan of lifc, Travel was pan of the ir lives. as was

being connected. The f.1ll1 ily currel1ll y li ves in a huge spac(', which does not

seem to bother rhem , and (heir family ties:He over distance bm thi s does not

mean t~~lt they are no t rel evant o r impo rtanr. On the contrary. this is how d, e Falmly functions.

To understand rhe work,O"g d d 0 f h r 01 ' 0 d 0 an YllalTIl CS 0 t e la lll! ys tI CS an ItS upward and downward soci I bO lo I Id ' , .. . a mo I Iry, la to experience their connectiVity, T hiS seartcd with their past ., h h , . • connectivity r roug tra vel. So I decided to travel rhe luneraries of rhe fan '1 I cl I d 0

• 11 Y as t ley eve ope In posfcolon ia l C ameroon, I hoped to discover o n d ' , h d I . liS Journey w at ma e t lem connect a nd what their connections were about W I I I f 0 0 0 . ' as t le fec 1110 ogy 0 con necting s]mllar to

a bndge. a telephone, or a road? What is the grammar of connec ting? Abraham Yenkong had dO cl 0 2003 I Id 0 0 fJ ' . le III so cou no t travel with h 1111 , One

hO, liS younger sons, however, agreed (0 travel the itinera ri es he had made with

IS parents with me We fo lio ' d h I 0 0 I " , . J

'\\e t e l lStOn ca traJecrones of the fanlll), In une 2009 on rwo jOl h b h , Irneys ( at roug t liS to Oku on rhe ~igerian border,

[Q Llmbe, to Kumbo, and back ro Ba menda,

Research Prac tice in Connect ions • 57

Howcvcr. hl'i'ore we cmb.lrh d on thi s jOtlrne)', we started our (re)d iscovcry

of rhe famih- itilll: ran' with the family 's phoro archives, T he pictures that wc

found in m~llr p.ms 'of the house showed the d iffe rent se tt ings in which the

famil), had lived , They fud Ill ov('d from o nc place to ano ther every four years,

which is \\'h, ' thC\' lud no t lived in B:ullcnda for a large part of their lives,

I (tirned rhe;e SCl ~tcred pic tures into a photo album that showed the chronol ­

ogy of the tr.lwl ... and plac('s whe re the fa m ily had lived, T hi s albulll then

acted as an introduction to d iscussions abou t thei r hi story and would direct

us to these pl.lCl'''' ,lJ1d Ihe-i r l'X peri('nces there as a family. T he pictures show

the famih:s cars, rhe wealrh)" life they had. and the many Fam ily members,

like gran~lmotht:r~, .HUllS, cousins, <l nd nephews, who joined the famil y fo r

shorter or longer periods in their rela t ively luxurio us houses, The pictures not

only rdlrhc ir own story but c le:Hl)' rdale the emotions and memories of the

Famil\' Jll ember .... Thl'se cmotions we re in for mat ive in undemanding Fa mil y

ties a;ld their :.ign ific.lll ce fo r each ind ividua l despite rhe di srances involved.

The srorie ... and pintlfl'''' also show the organizatio n of t hi s fa mily in

spact', YCllkong's child ren trawled lip and down between Famil y in Baaba

and Babllngo (the mo ther's vill age) and the places where their father was liv·

Hlg, SOIllC of Ihem spent thcir school yea rs in a vill age in rhe Nonh ~es ( Province where the\' livl'd with thl'ir g r.m drnothcr. An aum came to Llmbe

to rake CHe of the ' chi ld rcll for a long period and others like nannies also

helped in tht' hOll!>dlOld, T hi s fami ly had a remarkable number of child ren ,

cousins. and ncphcw~ but al so far-Hung f:ulli ly members who l iv~d with t~e fami ly for schooling, T hey have remained connec ted to che . fa mli~ and thiS

has led 10 a wcb orfamil y and acq uainta nces in the tWO provlllces 111 ~\Ies (e rn

Cameroon. To kt'ep these relat io ns going and stay in contact over dl s[an~e , travel is importan t. D id t h is mean that these itineraries arc part of the fa m liy,

just like their ho us(·s. ('stares , and famil), celebratio ns? The nexI step in t he di scovery of the con nections was the travel that

I undertook with the son , and rhat we later disc llssed with Yenkong's o ther

sons , daughtl' r. and f:lVorit(· wife. Yenko ng had both his own and work cars

(Land C ruiscrs) that were good for the poor road conditions and at onc of the

b d o 0 I h h vreek of onc of Abraham or er sta(]o ns, Dunng our t rave we saw t at t e \ Yenkong's ca rs lingered as a trop hy at the police post at. the bard,er. The roa~s were sti ll in bad shape when we rraveled along rh em III the ram Y,season m

J J I . .. ~ L de' The son was asto n ished that lIne- u)' 2009 111 our own loyo ta an rUlse r. I I I 0 0 d I b Od S and places where rhey used t ley lal nOI ullp roved and rccognrz.e [le rI ge . ' r

o rb k Wh vc tried to go from Mamre to pass and sometimes Stop lor a rea ", en \ Id I b 0 db' sable for cars and we cou to t le o rder reg io n, the rca s ecame IInpas , ,

l o b k ' s fo r him of hIS travels On y go by motorbike. Th]s brought ac' memonc

58 • Mirja m de Bruijn andlnge Br in ~nl.lll

in the different seasons with h is pa rl"l1I ~ wht'll hl' W .h .1 "m.dl ho\" ,H1d not yet in boarding school. Thest' \Vcrl' r,lraW,I\' pl.ICC\ in dlO\e .1,1\'\. ','\nwrhe­

less. rhe son sketched an alm ost inviting picture of rhi, linlt' ,t;ld If,m,:l was pan of the ro mance of fam il y li fe whell dl(> children CI Illt' togc lhl'r in the father 's house: for holidays. Thcn they werl' ,lbk to li\'(' lift' .1\ t1;t' ... hildrcn of a rich policeman with rhl'ir stylish clothe" and tlll'ir h.lir in h-hop .1Ilt! drivc arou nd in rhe ir f.l1her 's Sllla rt car. Tht,<;c \Wft' hl'.lluiful ri!1lt'.'\ 1b.1[ inllut'llced

their liv:: ~nd. meant that rhey would not ht' ,Ih l<.' 10 ft'(Urn {() Iht' vi llage forever. 1 Ills life with their father had tUfIll,d thclll in to ditn ,I ... wdl. T he condition of the roads was part of that li fl',

During our journq' wc Wl'rt vi:-.i ting pI. I Ct~. rnl'l'ti!l~ pl'opll' from those days and searching for thl' pbcl's that were o n the pictures we luti !(Hl nd back in Baaba, The main buildings we visited were th l' hou ... t· ... whl'ft' the ClIllih- had lived , the schools :Ind rhe church they :l l1 t· nded . and the Cuh,I .... rvk b'lr~ the" used to visit. Onc of the son's mai n reacrions wa$ Ih,1\ not vt'r~' Illllch had changed in 25 years , except for the anl1ospherl' in the har. Thi:- ':norhing has chang~d '" has to be taken vcry lite rally. Thl' furniture from 50 to 40 ~ 'c.lr; ago was stili III the offices :lI1d when Wt' visitcd thc office in the ho~ pital where his mother (the f;lVo rite wife) had workt'd as head of Ih(· hospit.d. the furniture fro m those days was sti ll Ihere, The same was true :\I .1 place where his farher had worked, T he visi t to the \',Irious bars where wc had seel1 t hl' piClIIl'e$ uf" rhe fa ther and mOl her dancing. ce!cbra t i ng and drin kin g. rl'vivl'd tllher melllories and he recalled the ho lidays they had when the brothl'fs used the cars and were rhe "big" boys. SOI11(, rh ings had changed. like rhe border [own of Oku where his f:lthcr 's .house h:Jd become dibpidatt'd and the police post had been abandoned. JUSt Ith the furniture thal had not changed since thl' f.1mil)' lived in those places the I)oor st:n fOk I 're ' ' . , eo lE was a so a sIgn 0 ameroon S ('conomlc downturn since the 1990s ·h I Id'" TI \\ en t le count ry was p unge Into Crl SI S. le travel and the memories cl" 'h ,cl I d'fTi I I' h I b , "n t: lOW I l(U I t li S C :tnge musr l:1Ve e(' l1 . The pictures show th(' family living a wealrhy life in Oku, limbe. Kumbo. and ~jum~jock but I hest' places seem nOt 10 have developed si nce, J ndel~d, the favonte wtfe who had wo k 'd I 'd I C I I I ' , rea ongsl (' t le rat ler lac never h,ld a pension an,d remembered those days when they could afford luxuries, The rravel made IhlS mOre explicit than stories could ever have done.

As a last slep in ou r rese h" cl ' . arc Itlllerary we l11a e a new photo presenr:lIIon on my bptop 10 IIlclude Ihe pictures laken on rhe road of the estates and houses and di scussed our . . . I I ' " _, itInerary Wit 1 t le sIste r. the favom(' WIfe , and a cousin. I he)' rel ived momc ' I d ' , Il(S III r le past an were happy to sce that fhlngs were stdl the re but they d'd ' -, . , I not appear eager ro rerum themselves. J heir react ions revealed that travel ' I r hr'· ,

. ' IS tle core 0 t e ramlly eXiStence. emotIOnS, and bl'JJ1g,

Res('arch Pr.1Clice in Connections • 59

Discussion

This c1l.1ptlT h . l ~ discussed (WO Clses of research travd in which the researchers bcca me p.1rt of a network of f.1mily connections. In the case of :\amihia/Angul.l. .dl l1lobilit~1 and If.lVl·1 was evaluated in terms of the war, the ongoing leg,le), of tl1t' W:1r .. lI1d the current changes in transport and comrnun ic.H ion pos\ibilit ics . Since the war ended. these possibilities have shown \·as t changes: f.l mil~' vi~its ,\lid cont.lets were impossible du ri ng the war and it W.I ~ only .l ftl'rw.lfd Ih,lt people could rravel on ce again. In this sense, the Call1erOOni,111 case shows greater CO nt in ll irr- The discussions of the pasr it iner,lry ... hOWl'l1 ,I cOl llinlli t ~, with f.Hni l~' rd:uions in [he present. Today's travel take~ them 10 SOll!h Afri c l. Europc and rhe Unit('d Slates and in our di sc'.J~"ion ... , lhe"'l' lu\'ds Illerged with rr:tvel in the P:JSI. The pholO albums of rhe children in dll'~t' gl'ogr.lphic:dly disr;\IIt places helped 10 sketch the new irinl'r.l ri e~ .IS c()nrinlJit~, of Ihei r grandf.Hhcr's lime,

The C:lnll'fOO ni.1 1l (.Ise had a much wid('f varie ry of sources than the AngoLln t'.I:-t', Apart from intCfvil'ws. rhe researcher h:td access 10 a d iary and pholo alhu lm but no histor ical sources sllch as those thar existed fo r rhe \lamibi.IIl /Angoian c.1~e .llId information abou t Ihe pas t only Glme through il1lervie\\'~ and wri l[ l'lI source Ill,\lcrial nOt direcriy related to {he history of (he f;llll ilit'<; ill\'Olved, Givl'll the region's long hisrory of marginali ty. illite racy. poverty .. lI1d b ck of Technological infrastructure, the lack of source material than o[ht'l' 01':11 history amongst people from SOU1heast Angola comes as no surprise.

SO tJrCl''' other than the research journcy do matter as travel in itse lf call hardly forrn .1 suli(:trv n:,',earch method, Only rh rough prior co nversa tions :Itld [he consultat ion 'of so urce mate ria l can travel be meaningfully used to

trace his t tll'it'~ of mobility- Learning abour rhe ro Ul cs and connect ions within a f.1lll il y network Ill:tkcs it possibk' to experience these travels and in th is way, travel fun ction ":ts an .Iuxiliary ro ol her rese:trch methods.

In dlt' Ango Ll1l case. the pr ior knowlcdge obta ined through interviews ;lnd fil'ldwork ten Vl'.lrs earlier enabled rhe rese:trcher ro silUate rhe rravel t'xpericnce~ in tl' rn~s of bot h contrast and si tn ilari ry. The Namibian con· (exr showed co ntilluity to:1 large extent as the researcher experienced travels [hat the falllil\' m('ml~ers had becll making fo r a considerab le rime, Travels ( into Angub \\:l'rc differenl in this r('specr and ('Ven rhough (he war had only t'nJed in 2002. conditions, speed. comfort, and travel possibilities had vastly ci1.lnged,

A ma jor differellcl' between the rwo experiences is the rnateria lity of the itincra rin, !n the Angola n case [he emphasis was on th~ poor ~ondition s of Ihe road .llld the difficulties encounte red when travellllg, which reRcct

60 • Mirjam de Brui jn and Ingc Brinkl11'l n

a histo ry of war. In the CanH.'roo ni an ca$(', ro,ld ~ " ·t·rl,.' .d ... o h,ld and the itinera ries were never t'asy bUl the.: f.1.m il)' undl'r q lld \' lud ,I l.l r ,lIl d was

~b l e ro rravel in relative comfo rt. Th is m;lt tri,dit )' of tl~ t" tr.l\"l'1 i~ important mformation. Traveling is also abou t sc..'Hl ing and abotll the ol"lll pit"d "p,lCes. In the Cameroon ian cas e study, the picture<; of Iht' p.l\I rn ,lde it t"lS\, ID .lCcess the spaces and the nansforma tions Ihal had been undl'rL:o ll t" . Tilt' m:l1eri­aJ i r~ o~ the travel and where thl'}' lived show thl" m;lIcri,11 wd l- he ing of Ihe famdy III those days and their rela ti vely high q :lI U\ . [t i ... L it-,H dut ther were among the: elite in those days, an elite that was working to\\",lrd prog~ess in the newly b~ rn narion of Camefoon. The "di <;covlTy" in Ihi, tr,l\"t"l n.: peric.:nee of the nond lffetenee befween now and then in road cond itio n<; , in the furni­ture that filled th(' family 's past offi ces, ;1I1c1 th e..' difference in I hI,.' 't.ne of the family houses can al so ht'lp in analyzillg th l' effect of thl' n :onomic dowll1u rn

of Cameroon in the 1990s. In the Angolan ca.':le . [r.IVcl cou ld ag.lin becomc a fl~1l parr of people's social repertoire wh ile mobility W,I'" ~ h , , ;pl.v r('duced dunng rhe war years. T his reAects an imporLHH change in .':IOciC'{\' ,md in [he social fa bric Ih;1I may lead us [0 draw concl usions on feCcll t dC H'JOplllcntS in Angolo,

Should wc reverr to a situation in which fieldwo rk is secn :1.$ "t'x plor:1.lion" ond "disco '" TI ' ' I . . very ~ liS question laS to rdate to Ill(' ,,:lStS of the people we arc studYlllg: how ha ve rhey lived in travel. space, and scltlellll'lH/ place? The methods chosen should depend on rhe research cont ex t and Illusr not be based on preco nceived models. In our cases, fo llowing the hisrory of family networks by mod f I Id" I I ' ('s 0 tr:1.Ve e ro expenenCl ng rat ler t 1:1I1 normg down routes and travel. These experiences rendered oLl r knowl edge more practical ~I~an :1.bslrac[ and deepened our undemanding of the hardships, oppon unl lles, emotions ' 11d 'I d 1-1 ' ' . , .. Contacts 111\'0 ve. lese ('xpcnences :H llInes were rough In the \la 'b' lA I ' , , . , . IllI lan IlgO an case, conditIons :1.t a Ct·rt :1. 111 su ge became so challenging ,h" h' h 'I d f h . ., r c researc er temporan r steppe out 0 t e publtc- transpon sector to "'vo 'd ,h 'k d I ", " I e rts s encountere w 1en arfl " II1O III an unknown destination at night. l;)

O ur .pract ice of fi eldwork in connections by uavding made us part of the fa mdy netwo rk in a d·ft c · . . , . . • I erelH way lrom JUSt Interviews and partiCIpat-Ing In doily life By carr'" d I 'b . . . } Ing pictures an elters between famtiy lllem crs and shan ng [fJvel experi h I

f " ences, t e researc 1crs to SO l11 e ext em became part o rhe fam tl y ne twork in n10\'e 1 I I er d' . . . I ' , [lent. t a so Olrere Illteresllng 111SIg ltS Into the ex tenSion of [he ne("\ I k d h '. . . . d

. \ Of san t elr nonSHedness, ThiS in turn faClluate extend lllg the research co . d hili . • nnectlons an s arp y cont ri bured to rhe snowba sampllllg e~ect (MacGaf(ey & Bazenguissa-Ga nga 2000: 24- 25).

We rea lrze tha t this expe ' f I ' h e ll . . nence 0 trave WIt le ow travelers on present or past mnerar ies is a very pe 0 I . . f

• rs na expenence. Nevertheless , the shanng 0

Research Practi ce in Connections • 61

these experiences and tht feeli ngs dUI accom pany rhem arc in formative and hel p the rcsearcher know rhe socia l. This experiell ce has been an importan t wa\' of "practic in g" the itint:rar), and discovering the rravel as a "prac ticed pla'cc" (de Ccrt cau 1984: 11 7). Did wc then nor also risk rhe "consnuction" of this social be~ 'o l1(! "realit ),"? Did wc overemphasize the memory of navel b,' crawl ing ou rselves and memori7.ing navel wit h the help of picrures, as in d~e Camer~onian case? But is this not the problem with all fieldwork experi· ences: T his chap ter explained how we unde rstood navel as a practiced place. Anal )'sis of the!>e experiences of travel and connecti ng as a grammar of con· ncn ing and "oeial change was not its aim. In ot her words, we have tried to

foc us ht're on met hod rather th311 on research coment. Our experiences have certainl), shown rhar it is worth nl:lking a "d iscov­

ery.'" .Hl explo rat ion of travel. or more generall ), of connecting part of our fieldwork. Travel of space does no!. however, go without pbce and serrlin.g so both the [r,n 't"l itinerary and the places of settling should be parr of 1hls discove ry. The bridges to connect have changed with time and (~day it is rhercfOl"t' not only in rr:lVelthat we discover connections bur also 111 pho~le

conversa tions and in virtual spaces on the Internet, tha t is, in social medl~. T he discoverv of these Auid spaces should become part of our field expert· ences JUSt l i k~ travel in order to understand the "grammar of conneccing" and social change.

No te

1. Convl"r~:Jti o n 9, with ;1 woman horn in Rundu in 1978, held on December 5,

2009, in Rund ll .

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