Center for Health and Risk Communication

What I did this summer: Reflections on the CODESRIA fellowship

This past summer I had the opportunity to participate in the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) 2006 Institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa. I was one of 15 young African researchers selected to explore the theme: “Traditional Forms of Health Provisioning in Africa”.   Each fellow came in with a proposal on the work they wish to pursue. I, of course, brought a communication perspective on understanding traditional healing. My goal was to help participating laureates develop better strategies for communicating with and about traditional healers. Fellow institute participants would be able to use the information provided in researching and implementing traditional health promotion campaigns in their own countries. The 4 week session included daily fellow presentations as well as lectures from the institute director and weekly resource persons. The participants came from a variety of disciplines from anthropology to history and medicine. While the majority of participants resided in Africa, the resources persons came from Europe and the United States.

The experience was simply tremendous. As an African in a western university setting, I have always been very committed to promoting the voices of African populations. This institute allowed me to make connections with new upcoming researchers. I had the opportunity to join a network of young African scholars and explore the links in our work. Next, I always found it challenging to speak about research in Africa without adequate access to the material published within the continent. Through this institute, I had the opportunity to consult the rich CODESRIA research databases and truly benefit from CODESRIA’s efforts to disseminate our work.

This experience was a great illustration of the complexity of intercultural communication. I found myself to be both an insider and outsider. While I was home, (the institute took place literally 5 blocks from my family home), the research environment was new to me. Learning was not limited to the theme of the institute, I had to get used to the protocol. I noted an interesting contradiction between the formality of the sessions (i.e. the participants’ questions/comments sounded more like complete speeches) and the collegial atmosphere of informal interactions (for example, the participants referred to one of the older fellow as Mom). Finally, language presented yet another interesting note, half of the respondents were English speakers, the others French, and as such I ended up serving a translation bridge during our informal outings.

Khadidiatou Ndiaye
Ph.D. Candidate
Communication Arts & Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University
234 Sparks
University Park, PA 16802