ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors identify some of the challenges of examining the ‘traumatic landscapes’ of Apartheid and post-Apartheid South Africa through ethnographic writing and research and most particularly through the medium of oral history and memory. They draw in particular upon Paul Ricoeur’s and Phil Gardner’s idea of the detour, which they argue must be taken from history and toward memory in ethnographic practice as a way toward historical responsibility within research. They illustrate this idea of the detour drawing upon a study of youth securitization in South Africa, focusing upon oral histories of former freedom fighters (known as the MK) recruited at young ages into the ANC. The authors point to the difficult tensions that emerge between the longstanding metaphors associated with the ethical ideals underlining ethnography itself and the role that the new global academy plays in undermining these ideals by creating structural and experiential dilemmas within the ethnographic landscape which are difficult to resolve. They point to the power of memory and the cultural politics of ‘home’, belonging and forgetting, in the making of politically minded ethnographies. They are left with more questions than answers: Were they the right people to witness? Where do memory and witnessing appear in the artistic moves of the ethnography? What are our burdens of authorship now and into the future? How do we ensure that such witnessing does not become a commodification of trauma and how can historical responsibility in ethnography become something that challenges trends in education research which positions the researcher as ‘other to the self’? Can the research world, politics, historical responsibility and ethnography still live together comfortably in higher education?
