Nwando Achebe--Daughter, Wife, and Guest--A Researcher at the Crossroads

Abstract

This article investigates the methods of historical fieldwork—and the problems, contradictions, and dilemmas inherent in it. It addresses questions of ethical research, the process of information-gathering, the relationship between the actual fieldwork experience and the interpretation and evaluation of research findings, how the researcher writes and represents her collaborators' words, and the power dynamics involved in the research process. In addition, this article evaluates personhood and the intersection between the political, intellectual, and cultural nexus of being an insider/outsider researcher. It critically explores the implications of identity creation and negotiation for a more complex understanding of African women's and gendered histories.

‘Africana womanism’: Implications for transformative scholarship in occupational science

“…The philosophy of holism can advance understandings of womanhood through more intersectional explorations of gendered occupation, such as considering motherhood as relational to womanhood (Achebe, 2002). The values of holism can also facilitate the discipline to re-evaluate and challenge dominant assumptions pertaining to mothering as an unpaid and therefore non-productive occupation, as well as an individual versus collective occupation (Cruz, 2015).…”

“…Embedded within these assumptions is the implicit undervaluing of unpaid occupations, such as mothering (Smith, 2003). Mothering from a Western lens is often viewed as a role or one singular dimension of womanhood, instead of as holistic and relational to being a woman (Achebe, 2002). The principle of holism can advance understandings of mothering as an occupation, as it embodies the values placed on motherhood within Africana women's lives (Cruz, 2015;Emecheta, 1979).…”

Reading Lolita: A Dialogic Encounter with Self and Others

“…[To illustrate Bogdan's concept of "feeling, power and location" problems (FPLP's): an African American or African Canadian reading the word "nigger" in a novel feels a degree of offense including deep emotional pain, a sense of lack of power over a text that uses the term without recognizing its potential effect on him/her as a reader, and is particularly vulnerable to this pain because of his/her location as a Black person.] Can you characterize any of your struggle in terms of Bogdan (Achebe, 2002). What I did not recognize fully at the time was the power of texts to alter my philosophical and epistemological stance.…”