Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

124 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

unless basic human rights are ensured (see also Farmer, 2010c, 2010d, 2010e). Clean

water, shelter, food for children, and access to health care (including treat ment of

tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV and AIDS): These are all basic needs that must be

addressed if deaf people in Cameroon are to have a good life and “flourish.”^15

Inspiration for an approach to flourishing that supports the notion of human

development as it is comes to the fore in the Cameroonian context, can be found

in the capability approach, a theoretical framework developed by Nobel Prize–win-

ner Amartya Sen and by Martha Nussbaum. The capability approach focuses on the

evaluation of quality of life in the effort to achieve social justice (Nussbaum, 2006).

Distinguishing between functioning (what people actually are and do) and capabilities

(the range of options and choices that people have and can make), the capabil-

ity approach makes room for self-determination and the opportunities that people

have to live the life they wish. The Cameroonian case study illustrates that increased

agency of deaf people is a necessary condition for their flourishing; this discussion

of development and indigenous views of flourishing is continued in Chapter 8.

CONCLUSION

Throughout the history of social science the debate about what is science and what

is scientific knowledge rages. “It is a question as much for North America or West-

ern Europe as for Africa” (Wallerstein, 1988, pp. 332–333).... Science is one way

of viewing and exploring phenomena, a critical, systematic way of thinking in the

fact-finding process.

—Nsamenang, 1992, p. 218

Working toward “epistemological equity” (Dei, 2010, p. 98) implies granting an equal

status to deaf (indigenous) knowledge in science. This is a methodological chal lenge.

This chapter’s discussion of an ethnographic case study on emancipation processes in

the Cameroonian deaf community illuminates the honing of research methods dur ing

fieldwork through negotiation with the participants (Fabian, 1990; Pinxten, 1997b).

Valuing the collective organization of the Cameroonian deaf community, tak-

ing into account the epistemic authority of deaf leaders, and being sensitive to

input from the broader community have led to a community-based and partici-

patory approach (Higgs, 2008). Cameroonian deaf people challenged me to de-

velop serious scholarship—that is, scholarship that can support the development

of their community. Meeting this challenge and generating contextualized, and

temporarily valid, answers to the question “How can deaf people in Cameroon

develop?” requires a “synthesis of multiple knowledge systems” (Dei, 2010, p. 104;

see also Nsamenang, 1992). This synthesis includes the wisdom built by deaf com-

munities around the world and the scientific knowledge that has been produced

in my field of study; it also takes into account African indigenous knowledge and

African deaf knowledge (this is discussed further in Chapter 8).

15. For an introduction of the notion of deaf flourishing, see Chapter 1, section titled “What Is a
    Good Life? Toward a Framework of Deaf Flourishing.”