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5
The Challenge of “Serious” Scholarship:
A Case Study of the Cameroonian
Deaf Community
In Chapter 2, I argued for cross-cultural comparisons using a descriptive approach
instead of a top-down approach. In the current chapter, the question of how deaf
indigenous knowledge can be valued during an ongoing research process^1 (that
is, what research methods are adequate) is illustrated by a discussion of the meth-
odology I developed for an exploratory case study on emancipa tion processes in
the Cameroonian deaf community, which, in line with performance ethnography
(Fabian, 1990), I created during my fieldwork. In a joint venture of negotiation
and control (Pinxten, 2006), the Cameroonian deaf community was involved in all
stages of my research process, and they have seen and reflected upon the findings.
The interdisciplinary project of this chapter involves deaf studies, deaf education,
(sign) lin guistics, anthropology, and critical pedagogy. The chapter starts with the
life story of a young deaf Cameroonian man who describes his educational journey,
and formulates critical questions which not only illuminate educational barriers
in the country, but are also related to global inequality and ‘development’. The
first section of the chapter concentrates on the methodology of the study, while it
also provides further background information on the country. In alignment with
the organization of the Cameroonian deaf community and including Cameroonian
deaf leaders as epistemic authorities, I employed a community-based and partici-
patory approach (Higgs, 2008, 2010). This methodological stance of intersection-
ality has been beneficial in my research process, as I have analyzed and taken into
account intertwining axes of oppression (based, for example, on one’s status as
African, black, deaf, or female or on one’s educational or class background; Farmer,
2010a; Thorvalsdottir, 2007).
The second section of the chapter provides a picture of the Cameroonian deaf
community, and its development in relation to the foundation of deaf schools, vari-
ety of sign language use, and collective life. The third section throws a light on the
community’s beginning emancipation process, which situates itself between hope
and hopelessness.
A bottom-up approach enabled me to describe Cameroonian deaf knowledge
and philosophy of life. The moral concept of “being serious” is employed in the
Cameroonian deaf community to guide its members toward “being successful.”- Chapter 8 provides further discussion of deaf indigenous knowledge in Cameroon, exploring
concept formation during transnational exchange.