My Physical Visit Made a very Big Difference.
Growing up as a child in Nairobi city in a lower middle income neighborhood called Eastleigh did not prepare me adequately for my first visit to Mathare Slums in 1991 when we were on a mission to preach the Gospel from door to door as University students. That visit opened my eyes and heart to a world that I had only heard about and seen in the media but had no clue of its reality. Reading Sarah Pink’s book, Doing Visual ethnography[1], brings me to a point of dilemma in accepting that images: videos, photographs and internet can adequately help in researching and understanding the culture and needs of a community. I had heard about life in the slums and seen pictures and videos in the media but none of this prepared me for the shock of the nature of poverty and suffering that the people of mathare slums experience daily in their lives.
Visiting their homes; sitting inside their tiny shanties with barely nothing to call their own; listening to their stories of injustices and suffering; lack of basic amenities; meager incomes from temporary manual jobs that is not even guaranteed; experiencing the smell of open raw sewer running right outside their doors; and heaps of garbage all over their neighborhood, could not have become apparent from the media images I had seen before. I had personally to visit and experience life with them, to fully understand their culture and discern their needs. IT was only then that I was moved and convicted in responding to the call of God to serve in this community in empowering community members using a multi-faceted model of ministry of: spiritual outreach (Redeem); formal education (Educating the next generation); Health programs (Restore); and Business Development services (Economic empowerment), to bring wholistic transformation to individuals in the vulnerable communities. I have heard the testimony of many visitors to the slums make the same observation that media images can never adequately communicate the state of the slums and you have to come personally to get the real picture and understand the needs on the ground.
I must agree however that we use images to communicate to our existing ministry supporters and potential ministry partners, and there’s always an emotional response to the photos, videos and our social media communication on the internet. I believe that the images add to the narrative reports we give them and solicits that emotional response that moves to partner with us in the work of ministry in these vulnerable communities. As Sarah Pink points out, images forms only as an alternative way of doing research and cannot replace other conventional ethnographic methodologies and invites researchers to consider it if it suits their research context and their research objectives[2]. Graphic Images of a place, people or event are easier to remember than the written or spoken report but they require to be supported by an explanation in written or spoken form for clarity and completeness.
As a follow up of the first mission visit to the mathare slums of Nairobi Kenya, we continued to work in the community but when time came to establish a resident ministry within the community, we needed to do a baseline survey, to understand the community even better. We wanted to give value to the extent of the needs in the community and understand demographics and other cultural aspects of the area. At this point, we had to use photography and videos to help us communicate the results of the survey to our partners and we still continue to do so as we get into new slum communities to replicate our ministry work in these new communities. It is therefore clear that visual ethnography is a key tool of research that adds value to the research work and the communication of the same. Pink cites Jim McGuigan, the cultural studies scholar as asserting that it’s not unusual for good researchers to make up the methods as they go along, stating that ‘the methods should serve the aims of the research, not the research serve the aims of the method’[3] (McGuigan 1997.2). Visual ethnography will no doubt be a great addition to our toolbox as we continue in the doctoral program and in the future.
[1] Sarah Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography, 2nd edition. (Los Angeles: SAGE Publications Ltd: Kindle Edition, 2013)
[2] Sarah Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography, 2nd edition. (Los Angeles: SAGE Publications Ltd: Kindle Edition, 2013).10
[3] Ibid…
About the Author
Wallace Kamau
Wallace is a believer in Christ, Married to Mary Kamau (Founder and Executive Director of Missions of Hope International) and father to 3 Wonderful children, Imani Kamau (Graduate student at London School of Economics, UK), Victory Kamau (Undergraduate student at Portland state University, Oregon, USA) and David Kamau ( Grade student at Rosslyn Academy). Founder and Director, Missions of Hope International (www.mohiafrica.org), CPA, BAchelor of Commerce (Accounting) from University of Nairobi, Masters of Arts (Leadership) from Pan African Christian University.5 responses to “My Physical Visit Made a very Big Difference.”
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Wallace,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful insights. For the first time this semester, I am reading classmates blog posts first to attempt to find a way to access Pink’s “Doing Visual Ethnography” for my own blog post. You state, “Pink cites Jim McGuigan, the cultural studies scholar as asserting that it’s not unusual for good researchers to make up the methods as they go along, stating that ‘the methods should serve the aims of the research, not the research serve the aims of the method’” Your statement affirms (in my mind) the challenges of ethnography. That is, the method or tool should serve the greater purpose of sound research. Unfortunately, in our contemporary focus on image and audio sound bite, even scholarly research can be skewed. Honestly, my “old school” bias regards much of ethnography with caution and reservation. I thank you for sharing with me how it has helped you and will help you in your research pursuits. Blessings, H
Thank You Harry, God’s blessings too
Wallace, this is a very thoughtful post. There is definitely a need to use visual ethnography to chronicle the human injustice in our world. Although I know that images can sometime be exploitative of the very people they aim to assist, they can also be used to bring enlightenment to situations. Sometimes we need an emotional response to bring action.
Great thoughts, Wallace. I agree that photos are not the same as experiencing something personally. I think that is why Pink’s works are best combined: sensory and visual ethnography. It is the touch, the smell, the sounds that often make the visuals more honest and real.
I wonder if as you say, the value of the images in sharing about a ministry setting comes with good story telling? There was a time when story telling was the primary way of sharing culture—I think of how we inherited chunks of our Old Testament. The benefit of story telling is that we are much more intentional about descriptions and as a result our audiences imaginations can be shaped. Perhaps we have come to rely to heavily on images to tell more of the story then they are meant to? Or have we failed to educate and become educated on how to receive images well? Do you think your perceptions of the slums would have been more accurate if you had had the details and stories shared in a more intentional way?