Being a member of GRACE By Gisele Yitamben
Being a member of the GRACE has brought a lot to me, and at various levels. First of all at the level of theoretical knowledge in the domain in which I find myself, that is to say: qualitative research; and then on the way of thinking and being. This has impacted positively on my usual activities. Before being a member of the GRACE Network, it has been more than 20 years that I have been managing a social enterprise that I founded to promote women entrepreneurship and the social insertion of youths. Becoming a researcher, while at the same time continuing my activities, was a new challenge for my personal evolution and emancipation. As a Social entrepreneur, I did mobilize, for many years, intellectual, human and financial means to solve problems that women and youths that were engaged in entrepreneurship were facing. The objectives of this organization that I founded were to provide to women entrepreneurs and to youths, trainings and financial means that country’s system kept them out, putting in place a training centre that offers them education and qualifications that they could not obtain or could obtain with difficulties. I attended so many conferences, colloquiums, forums and discussion groups, to evaluate the distance to be covered notably by women to attain what the system judges as being of an acceptable level, and I did strife at developing some strategies to enable the bridging of this gap. Then as an institution at the level of my centre, I deployed considerable efforts to render intelligible to my target the problems that appeared to be theirs in order to implement generally prescribed changes. This non participatory approach, by its objectives of capacity building, support and assistance, implicitly admit the deficiency of the woman. In effect, a woman appears to participate less in the diagnostics of her situation, and further less in the elaboration of the cure that could be administered to it. We announce to her that she is sick; we even convince her that she is very sick, and we propose a cure to her without which her situation will be in despair. The way to necessary change, appears to require considerable efforts (sensitization, animation). That is the change that imposes the movement of actors that at times, put passive or even active resistance. For example, in the 1990s, one could note that the production from the women’ farming activities were just sufficient for family subsistence. One of the reasons for this problem was the reduced size of the agric farms that they were working on. There were rudimentary methods that they used to toil the soil. These rudimentary methods were linked to the absence of financial means. One of the solutions proposed at that time was the development of community farms. That is to say a piece of land generally provided by the administration to enable women of the same locality to farm on large spaces. Thanks to donations in terms of materials, labour on these community farms became less strenuous. One noticed that these community farms had contributed to over loading the woman in terms of labour. In fact, she is usually the one who labours in the farm of her partner. She has her own farm in which she obtains food to feed the family; she owns an orchard near her house for the growing of condiments and other needed plants at reach. Further more; the modern equipment
provided was only for use in the community farm. The women did not have the right to use it to improve output from their own personal activities. The project thus conceived, cost so much, and contributed in overloading the woman. One after another, the women left the community farm and the project failed. As one can see, change is appearing to be made through a monologue that is less concerned with what the beneficiary thinks. The approach prevents the integration by the beneficiary who cannot perceive if the imposed change is well founded. Evaluations have enabled one to see that women would prefer using the equipments in a mutual way instead of being together on one (community) farm. In these communities women have the habit of helping each other, a help to each other in which individual contributions are appreciated and valorised. Following this evaluation, projects of placing equipments at the disposal of women were developed and they also failed, because the project was once again imposed. Beneficiaries did not participate in debating whether the project was well founded and how it had to be implemented. This is where the problem of appropriation and indigenization of the process lies. That is how we have been thinking in my universe. It is here that I joined GRACE. During the first encounter between members of the researchers in 2005 in Durban South Africa, the researchers unanimously expressed the wish to see the continent transformed. Part of that transformation was to see African women use ICTs for their empowerment. This way, each one of the researcher chose a topic that fascinated her. In my case, I worked on the use of Internet for the economic empowerment of women, the case of women entrepreneurs in the textile sector of Douala in Cameroon. The first work that resulted in a collective book: African Women and ICTs, Investigating Technology and Empowerment. I did a study on the usage that women entrepreneurs of the textile sector were making of the multi media centre placed at their disposal by the Chambers of Commerce of Cameroon. That project is the fruit of cooperation between the Chambers of Commerce and multiple donors and has as an objective to enable women access to ICTs as a helping tool for the development of their activities. Our research enabled us to discover that women were not using the centre as planned. We also discovered that the same women have been using Internet, even by spending a lot of money. But in looking into the findings of our research, all that we retained was the fact that women were not using the multi media centre the way it was planned. Anyway, that has been the lot of most projects. I started my research process as an activist for women’s emancipation and equality. This role of activist is generally to strongly and actively advocate a cause, or develop programs to tackle issues. It is about using existing knowledge to transform the environment. He/she can even envisage violent action in support of the causes that he/she defends. However, my role as a researcher was to construct knowledge through systematic inquiry into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories and applications. The researcher nourishes that urge to discover something, a solution, by exploring. Here are two ways of being that can be rather contradictory. One is about bringing knowledge, while the other is about listening and having the humility to discover new ideas and contribute to the change of the environment through ideas. What I failed to understand at the outset was the technical capacity of the women respondents in my study. Even as they were not using the multi media centre, they manipulated the Internet well above what the centre provided for them. The centre was desperately empty or simply of use by students to which it was not destined. I did not fully appreciate how well informed the women were with regard to their businesses and their use of the Internet to advance their work. I didn’t see that the dominant thinking of the project’s donors had insidiously portrayed the women as ‘defective’. Nor did I understand that the dominant view
of African women had served as a means to justify the lack of success up of some of the programs. My perception changed dramatically following extensive research, dialogue, and attempts to find an underlying logic and coherence in the data derived from the women entrepreneurs’ work in ICT services which was part of a program developed by the Chamber of Commerce of Cameroon. To make this shift in my perspective, it was crucial for me to see the women respondents as having the capacity to act on their own behalf. Holding this new approach required exposing and challenging my own assimilation of the dominant patriarchal paradigm, which I discovered as playing a part in my thinking even as I considered myself an activist for women’s equality. I learned through this process how hidden assumptions embedded in mainstream discourse, existing institutions and individuals (both women and men), perpetrate male power and oppress women, in this case in Cameroon. I further learnt how easy it is to sustain the thinking of the dominant paradigm, and how difficult it can be to recognize this. I went through an individual inner transformation process. I started by finding answers to several questions. Why are so many projects failing? What projects and for who? Who is the beneficiary? Is she an actor of the project (i.e.: having contributed to its definition) or is a simple passive consumer of keys-in-hand projects that are conceived some thousands of km away and whose performance is measured essentially by the numbers of beneficiaries or the rate of reimbursement? Is it by this way that progress and blooming is measured? Why persist on that way? If the failure rate is high, why not simply question the system in which one evolves? It looks like there was a ready made gown already sewn inside which one had to wear at all cost? Who sew the gown and for whose interest? And why wear the gown at all cost? Those were the body of questions that needed to precede my outward expression of valid and reliable research results. This process was inspired and nurtured by self-reflection practices that enabled me to work through my layers of consciousness and the associated layers of meanings. Before understanding what my research respondents were saying to me, I had to recognize the discrepancies within my own thinking, values and desired vision of the world. This was supported by the various way of working in GRACE. It is a process I treasure. This personal development and the progressive improvement of the quality of my research is the outcome of the methodologies used and the quality of the coordination of the network. At GRACE, we gave privilege to the participatory approaches. This methodological approach consists of making those on which we carry a study, full fledged partners. The latter are associated with the search for solutions to their problems, from the definition of their needs (that must come from them under the less commanding conduct of a researcher), up to the elaboration and the putting in place of solutions. That will facilitate not only their implication, but equally their appropriation of the solution retained. The Free Attitude Interview (FAI) method in conducting interviews was a great curiosity to me. In this method, the interviewer does not more orientate the discussion but handle it with follow ups, putting questions emerging from reactions of the interviewee. The interview ceases to be a simple exercise very close to questioning, to becoming a construct, in which, the interviewee takes central stage.
Self care is one important aspect of our work and approach. Another is that of being capable of observing nature, taking care of leisure as it contributes to restoring the creativity, the imagination and of the curiosity of the researcher. One should take special care of one’s being. The researcher must take particular care of herself by imposing discipline that is capable of generating balance life, where relaxation is not more considered as waste of time, but as a moment of detente, remaking ideas, decompressing; a moment of introspection, source of indepth and coherence meditation in what one believes in. Another aspect is the exercise of writing and sharing writings, which consists of giving a free ride to our imagination, in order to stimulate our capacity to write. This has contributed a lot to unleashing my writing capabilities. The final aspect is the network as a possibility for mutual enrichment, to meet, exchange and self support, have a critical and at the same time encouraging regard for each another in what we are doing. The craving that moved all the members of the group was the transformation of our continent. This desire to transform led us to continually question ourselves, discuss about the world: How is it doing? What are the predominant ideology and its place in the perpetuation of the domination of women? What is the history of Africa and its consequence on the situation of the woman? What are the mechanisms that led the continent to the current situation and how to dismantle them? How can ICTs be well used in the understanding of the world and the mutualisation of our efforts towards the transformation of the world? And with regard to objectives pursued the necessity to revise certain concept, notably those of empowerment and in our case the empowerment of women within the context of the capitalist economy where social benefits like minimum wage have disappeared. To make more and more profit, companies are paying less and less wages. And for that, companies are employing more women and children. Can we say that by looking at the statistics, the situation of the woman is being improved? Well as this employment continue to increase her burden, since the mentalities haven’t as much evolved, and the domestic charges are always reserved for them. The work overload makes that finding time to train themselves even in activities that will diminish their work overload will be lacking. Concerning the coordination of the network The coordination gives space to each member who is passionate on an issue to work on it. The themes of research emanate from individual researcher. She/He is encouraged to choose what passionate him or her. Then come the coaching through physical meeting and through the use of Internet where individual and collective needs are addressed. Internet allows collaborative work, sharing of resources and ideas between the members. In concluding, it does no more mean that we should strive to fit in the system, but that we should strive for the truth that effectively enhances the quality of life.