The madness in my methods

This week I want comment on the methodological aspect of my research. I am running into some difficulties and advantages I didn’t expect. I have to say before I get into the logistics of what I wish to discuss that I love that I am an amateur researcher. I didn’t come to Ghana with a real concrete idea of how to conduct research or what research should look like. In the prep class I did study research theory and techniques and read a lot of research that has already been done but I am now finding what a limited perspective I have had on the possibilities found within research. I like that! I love that I have so much to learn everyday here and though it is overwhelming I have so much to discuss everyday in my field notes, much more than I anticipated to.

Methodological Difficulties:

I have organized my research and learning here into two venues (1) Interviewing about and observing/participating in spiritual dance (2) Acquiring dance skill in Traditional and Popular African Dance. In the first aspect on spiritual dance I am finding great difficulty in asking questions during interviews about the topic of spirituality. It seems many people are confused by the term “spirituality.” I believe I can create new questions to probe responses of some substance out of my informants that would facilitate answers of significance for my research but the term is so common, personable and understandable to me that it is hard for me to rephrase or explain my questions in another way. My plan as of now is to try out the word “religious”, but I wonder if the organizational connotation of this word will affect the answers I receive. I am so confused about the word “spiritual” because when I ask them questions about spirituality informants, often priests, say they don’t understand it yet their answers are full of terms like “spiritual illness” or “spiritual power.”

In the second venue where I am taking dance lessons and improving my dancing ability I am struggling because my body loves to follow the patterns it is familiar with, that is ballet and modern dance (not necessarily prevalent in Africa). I get frustrated during my dance lessons with King (he teaches me Azonto dance, popular among the younger generation and performed to Ghanaian hip-life music) and especially with Sister Akua (teaches me Adowa lessons in town behind her little shop) because I know I look like a WHITE GIRL! I don’t have the African rhythms instinctual harbored in my body and so I struggle to make my Azonto not look like a step-ball-change or my Adowa to not look like I’m a nervous server carrying a platter of glasses filled to the brim. Another difficulty is that the movement is easy and habitual for my teachers and that makes it hard to break it down to teach me. Especially with Sister Akua who doesn’t speak any English. It is hard to get instruction or feedback from her at all and even if she does talk it’s hard for a translator to hear because of the volume of the music and the distractions of children running around or men watching.

One other methods difficulty I have that occurs with both venues is my electronics and video recordings. But I don’t think I need to bore you with those details, I’m sure we’ve all experience technical difficulties even in countries where electricity is usually always reliable and compatible with your devices.

Methodological Advantages:

I have one main advantage I would like to mention. I was not expecting to have King as a translator, guide, teacher, cinematographer, informant or brother and I am truly grateful for his service and knowledge. He has helped me secure so many great opportunities to observe and participate in dance experiences. He is a great translator and he understands my project very well so my interviews though confusing at times are always fruitful thanks to his explanations and help. This last Thursday he accompanied me to a festival in Effiduase with Nana (the Priestess from the Obene Ne Bene Shrine here in Konya who invited us to come). He spent the whole time translating for me, and videoing much of the dancing that occurred. He was very competent with my electronics and captured exactly what I needed. And the best part was I didn’t have to worry about what I was recording and could just participate and observe with one less thing to worry about. I could not get so much information for my project if it wasn’t for his service.

Our Azonto dance lessons are fantastic too! He is very good at breaking down the difficult steps and he encourages me but also challenges and pushes me in my ability. And because we live in the same house, setting up times and making dance lessons happen is much easier than it is with lessons outside the house. Additionally, he is a great friend and if I didn’t have him around to tell me to relax when I needed to I don’t think I’d be having as great of a time as I am having here.