This research project was approved and a license was issued on the 20th of December 2011, for conducting research on violence against women in the entire communities in East Africa by the Regional Commissioner of Mwanza region.
According to Kanyamala, obtaining formal consent is of utmost importance as stipulated by the Tanzania National Health Research Forum, which states “under no circumstance should research be conducted without the consent of the prospective research subject or any authorised person on his/her behalf” (Kanyamala 2010: 55).
Ellsberg and Heise (2005) emphasised the need to obtain consent from local district or national authorities concerned. Hence, before conducting the research, I examined ethical guidelines, as I was aware that my study is highly sensitive. With more of an empirical focus on finding out what people actually believe and then do (Banks 2004), knowledge of descriptive ethics was explored to understand meanings of the moral norm concepts of the ethnic groups in the study. I knew it involved personal matters, which would discuss the most intimate parts of Kuria and Ukerewe women’s lives. Ellsberg and Heise (2005) contented that researching violence against women is a highly sensitive topic with issues of confidentiality, problems of discourse and the need to ensure adequate and informed consent. Based on this understanding, I spent an hour discussing ethical issues with the participants prior
to starting the interviews in all the wards. All the research members were fully aware of the purpose of my study as I explained the aim and significance of the research project. I highlighted what their participation in the research project entailed, and acknowledged the importance of their contributions and how it would enrich the success of the research process. We discussed issues like respecting and listening to each other in group discussions, and allowing each member to share and give their opinions. I also encouraged the participants ask questions if they needed clarification on the study. They were made aware of the risks, if any, involved but assured of total confidentiality of whatever they share during and after the fieldwork.
Though selected victims and clients of the NGOs operating in the communities, those who came to be interviewed came willingly. The leaders of the NGOs explained that while I sent copies of my research permit and the interviewees are their clients, they still went through the village leaders with my research permit for them to be interviewed. On the other hand, the NGO leaders approached the community actors personally with copies of the research permit.
My standpoint was to collaborate with the NGOs in the communities of the research area. These NGOs are a group of agents who have developed their own principles and standards, similar to who have expertise and count themselves as serving the public/clients and pledge themselves to do so (Banks 2004). I was attracted to the NGOs’ standards and norms of behaviour, which are accepted and followed by members of their professional group. In order to reach out to counsel victims of cultural practices, the NGO workers’ notion of effectiveness is clearly related to the outcome of a reduction in the number of victims visiting their centre for counseling (Banks 2004). Almost all the interviewees (who claimed to be victims) said they visited the NGO centres because their rights have been violated. They knew they would be heard and helped through counseling.
All of the interviewees were from different religious background some were Christians, others were Muslims, and Traditional believers. Hence, I was very careful to approach ‘taboo’ topics with sensitivity, especially as the practices are culturally oriented in a context where all participants including my research assistant are natives to the cultural practices and I alien. During the interviews both Mama Anna and I tried to ascertain the moral beliefs the interviewees hold and how they act in relation to the tensions and dilemmas that arise from their life experiences. This involved looking at the new issues emerging from their experience and how they are or should be handled (Banks 2004). A few interviewees explained how emotional they become whenever they recall the traumatic experience of FGC, widow cleansing rites, and with the young women in the Nyumba Ntobhu others, the servitude experiences they
encounter in their daily lives. In order to avoid causing emotional distress, and not to compel the participants to reveal anything they were uncomfortable with (Abdi 2010), Anna and I took care and explained to the interviewees that they could withdraw from the interview at any time.
There were challenges and concerns during the fieldwork period among the older participants especially the clan leaders and elderly women. They were very critical of the modern interference of societal structures. Studying the community structures of the Lake Zone regions raises a lot of challenges for me and I began to question whether the Kuria and Ukerewe women (especially the young women) are caught in a ‘crossways’ between cultural meanings and implications. During the interviews, I was often confronted by some interviewees with the question of how these rituals are done in my own country and in my culture. Due to the increased interest of the public in the practice of FGC, widow rites cleansing, and woman-to-woman marriage some of the participants (especially the elderly women, men, and one young woman) responded very defensively when being asked to talk about their understanding of the practices.
In her fieldwork, Abdi (2010) was also confronted with such issues as Mama Anna and I faced. She shared that to counter this, the interviewer makes sure the interviewees know what the researcher’s interest is, and listens to their views and does not to impose any of her personal ideas on the interviewees. In this way, informants did not feel judged according to the morals of the area (Spronk 2006) and they knew their information would not be shared with other people in the village (Starace 2009). In addition, they were assured that any interview data would be handled with confidentiality and recorded material destroyed after the transcription.
I explained to my informants that they would remain anonymous in the study. Most of the participants were relieved to hear this and were more relaxed in their demeanor, and more readily shared their memories and opinions (Spronk 2006). In order, to protect the privacy of my research participants I do not include names in this study.
I entertained some emotional fear before I even set foot into the field, and wondered whether the research participants were going to open up and share their stories. The other anticipation I had was the fear that interviewees might only share a fraction of their stories. It was difficult to know how the research participants viewed me. I introduced myself at the beginning of each session as a researcher who was interested in understanding the meaning of cultural practices and other domestic violence where women have been perpetrators or instrumental abusers. I also told
them I am a Catholic nun who teach at St. Augustine University of Tanzania but studying currently at University of Tampere in Finland.
My research assistant also introduced herself as a staff and legal aid person from Kivulini women’s rights organisation. Although the clients were very much aware of my status as a researcher, it came across in the interviews that I was viewed as someone they could trust and so they opened up to tell their stories. However, on few occasions, I felt the clan leaders and especially the elderly women looked me with suspicious eye. One of them in particular took time and even questioned me at length to know my motives of the research before he shared his understanding of the cultural practice. The women’s experiences, the clan elders’ and community actors’ interpretation of the practices in their social and cultural context unfold in the next three empirical chapters.
5 EXPERIENCES AND INTERPRETATIONS OF FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING IN KURIA SOCIETY
This empirical chapter is on the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) among the Kuria in Musoma rural district. Four young women aged between 18–35-years old shared their experiences of FGC. Their narratives touched on three major themes:
(a) experiences of violence associated with FGC, (b) health risks and related issues encountered as a result of FGC, and (c) socio-cultural values integrated with FGC practice. Having undergone the genital cut ritual, three of the young women consider themselves victims of the practice. The fourth young woman interviewee regards herself as a ‘survivor’ not a ‘victim’ of FGC, even though she had undergone the ritual. The narratives of these young women presented in Section 5.1 give a rich and holistic account of their personal experiences and the interpretations they gave to the FGC rituals they underwent, as well as their perceptions of its cultural meaning.
Section 5.2 presents the interpretations of FGC as understood by the clan elders and other community actors highlighting the cultural meaning from their point of view. Section 5.3 shows the interrelations between the personal experiences and the cultural norms that emerged in the narratives.