ABSTRACT
The value of fictionalisation for reporting research was highlighted powerfully during the Ubuntu project. Many participants in the myriad projects struggled to produce a clear and comprehensive definition of Ubuntu, pointing us, instead, to examples of embodied action in their contexts. They told us stories; these stories not only exemplified Ubuntu but also described it in a manner that was both nuanced and evocative. The telling of such rich stories convinced us that to strip Ubuntu of its storied nature and to try to present it as some kind of abstract philosophy would be to divorce it from its African worldview – and possibly to violate it. In this chapter, therefore, we reflect on fictionalisation, both as a method of inquiry and as a literary practice in reporting research, in order to celebrate its appropriateness and value in the Ubuntu project. We explore some of the available literature on this topic, together with how we, as authors of this chapter, have used fictionalisation, locating our experience within a scholarly framework as we trace elements of our personal journeys. In our work, fictionalisation and fiction writing are not only used as a metaphor to think about research but are investigated as a genre for the development of research and the meaningful reporting of it within the academic environment. We have embarked on this “scary” journey in order to find a way to describe significant and exciting discoveries in ways that challenge and inspire as well as inform. Importantly, we articulate how fictionalisation can help us to communicate the entanglement of experience and theory and what it makes possible in terms of enriching research practice. The chapter argues for the use of fictionalisation in research and crucially, crystallises how the contributors to this book use fiction and narrative to make their discoveries about Ubuntu more accessible to both academic and non-academic audiences.
