We are an anthropologist (Hull) and a translator and community researcher (Dlamini) working together to co-produce research findings. Building on our face-to-face collaborations during extensive ethnographic and interview research since 2010, Dlamini is collecting data for the current project. He has conducted semi-structured interviews with farmers, traders, street vendors, shop owners, supermarket employees and community leaders. Hull provides training and support remotely via phone, email, Whatsapp and Zoom. Working closely together, this research process entails regular discussion between us, involving contact at least twice a week. We discuss interview data after every interview, beginning with Dlamini’s interpretations that draw on his skills as a trained interpreter and translator, his knowledge of the region as his home of birth, and his experience of the interview event itself. Hull conducts initial coding of the data and then develops further interpretations and analysis in discussion with Dlamini.
The project received ethical approval from SOAS University of London and conforms to the SOAS Research Ethics Policy. But our project involves methodological and ethical issues that go beyond formal approvals and procedures. The research moves away from assumptions about translator as a technical role, and considers what it means for translators to co-produce research findings. The work of translation between us as researchers is as complex as the initial translations of interview material from isiZulu to English. It involves in-depth conversations that become part of the body of data to be analysed. Moreover, ‘co-production’ and co-authorship are not silver bullets to achieving a more equitable research process, but involve different kinds of power dynamics, institutional and technical constraints, and risks to be navigated.
Rural economies in South Africa 