[Guinea-list] Requirements for research in Guinea

[Cody Donahue]

Dear Rebecca,
In my opinion, you will meet suspicion and resistance from local officials
if you arrive in their village without some kind of permission, letter,
notice or other credible (in the eyes of a Guinean local elected official)
reason for researching language in Guinea. Perhaps areas that speak
Badiaranke are different than areas that Tostan has worked in, but this is
what I have found. Tostan conducted research last year, mostly focused on
urban areas, and though it was through USAID, we spent a lot of some working
out the protocol and courtesies that would enable our research teams to
visit a community and be able to navigate its traditional power structures
in order to access the information we sought. Though checking/consulting
with Conakry University researchers, Ministries of Education, National
Languages, etc may seem like an unnecessary expense and waste of time, I
would consider them a necessary evil if I were conducting original research
in the field in Guinea. The opportunity to build lasting relationships and
potentially capacity with these researchers, I think, should not be missed.

I am copying my colleague Sabine Panet who also worked on the research
project to see if she has an opinion.

Best, Cody
Tostan
Conakry 2005-2006

On 12/11/07, beccatamar at yahoo.com <beccatamar at yahoo.com> wrote:

>

> Hi all,

>

> I am an RPCV (Senegal 2000-2002) doing research on the

> Badiaranke language, spoken in Guinea as well as in

> Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. I've done fieldwork on

> Badiaranke in Senegal but this time (I'm leaving for

> Senegal Jan. 20) am hoping to go to Guinea as well.

> I'm having some trouble finding out exactly what, if

> any, official permissions I need to get to do

> linguistic research in Guinea and, if any are

> required, how to go about getting them. (I am trying

> to avoid going to Conakry at all costs, since I am

> flying into Dakar and need to travel overland to the

> Senegal-Guinea border, where the language is spoken,

> so I'd hate to have to also travel between there and

> Conakry for reasons of time, money, and

> (in)convenience.) Has anyone out there done research

> in Guinea, and if so, do you have any advice about

> what permissions are needed and how to get them?

>

> Thanks for any advice you might be able to offer!

>

> Rebecca

>

>

>

>       ____________________________________________________________________________________

> Looking for last minute shopping deals?

> Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.

> http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

> *********************************************

> Guinea-list mailing list

> To Post to List: Guinea-list at klatha.com

> List Owner: fogwebmaster at yahoo.com

> Unsubscribe:

> http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/guinea-list

>




-- 
Cody N. Donahue
Director of Partnerships
Tostan, Empowered Communities Network

E-mail: codydonahue at tostan.org
Skype: donahuec
Tel: 1.202.408.9280 | Fax: Call for Instructions
1301 Clifton St., NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009
http://www.tostan.org

Please consider the use of resources before printing this e-mail
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/guinea-list/attachments/20071212/a0edc186/attachment.htm>