Africa through the looking glass.

• Author: Lizzio, Kenneth
• Position: Researching Conflict in Africa: Insights and Experiences - Book review

Researching Conflict in Africa: Insights and Experiences Elizabeth Porter, Gillian Robinson, Marie Smyth, Albrecht Schnabel, and Eghosa Osaghae (New York: United Nations University Press, 2005), 184 pages.

It is a profound indictment of Africa that after nearly a half century of development assistance to the continent, attention and resources continue to be devoted to conflict analysis and intervention. Indeed, so prevalent and widespread is the problem that by the end of the 20th century an entire swath of Africa was mired in violent conflict of one form or another. The modern vision of an Africa evolving from third to first world status has, in the post-modern period, given way to simply keeping the continent from imploding altogether. The costs of destructive conflict are acute given Africa's burgeoning problems from AIDS and other diseases to drought and dwindling natural and financial resources.

Researching Conflict in Africa: Insights and Experiences is another addition to the growing body of literature on African conflict. This slender volume grew out of a 2002 workshop at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Noteworthy is the fact that it is not an exclusively Western product, but includes articles by both Western and African researchers. This collaborative approach is a theme echoed to good effect throughout the book. Researching Conflict aims to be a methodological and theoretical primer for researchers seeking to conduct conflict research in Africa. Insofar as policymakers and development specialists are also involved with assessments, evaluations, various types of studies and getting at the "truth on the ground," this book can serve a useful ethical and methodological guide for development practitioners as well.

Part One of the book identifies some of the ethical, methodological and policy issues involved in conflict research. One issue that appears repeatedly and in different guises throughout the book is the need for researchers to be cognizant of their status as "insider" or "outsider." One's status has both ethical and methodological implications for the researcher. Recognizing that perfect objectivity in conflict research (or any research for that matter) is a chimera, Marie Smyth suggests that insiders and outsiders collaborate as a means of minimizing cultural assumptions and biases, if not of eliminating them entirely. Indeed, this practice has been in use by humanitarian and development agencies for some time now. Another recurring theme is that of ethics in research. This material is not new, and the ethics discussion appears extensively in anthropological literature. Nonetheless, continued ethical violations in research make it prudent to reiterate here.

Albrecht Schnabel's article, "Preventing and Managing Violent Conflict: The role of the Researcher," is fraught with unrealistic and simplistic prescriptive approaches for...