Journal Article

“We Thought You Would Be White”: Race and Gender in Fieldwork

Henderson, Frances B.

2009

Overview

After an exhausting 22-hour trip from St. Louis, I landed in Maputo, Mozambique, alone, for the first time in July 2003 to begin my dissertation research on women and women's organizations in Mozambique since democratization. I spent an hour talking to a young man who was returning home (to Maputo) from Brazil. Seeing it as an opportunity to practice my Portuguese with someone who spoke English, I did not realize that an hour had passed and my “welcoming party” still had not arrived. The young man and I switched from Portuguese to English as he began telling me the “cool places to hang out and get a drink” in Maputo. I had no idea who was coming to pick me up as I was armed only with the information that it was my in-country advisor's brother who would be there. As this young man and I were talking someone came up to me and asked, “Are you Frances?” With a sigh of relief, I said yes, and he replied, “I was here all of the time and I did not realize that you were here until I heard you speaking English with this young man. I did not recognize you; we thought you would be white.”

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: African American culture / African American studies / African Americans / Ambiguity / Boarding houses / Democratization / English / Epistemology / Ethnic Identity / Females / Feminism / Feminist anthropology / Field research / Field study / Fieldwork / Gender identity / Identity / Ideology / Imagery / Interpersonal Relationship / Kwanzaa / National Identity / Participant Observation / Political identity / R&D / Race / Research & development / Researchers / Scholars / Sex / Social norms / SYMPOSIUM: Fieldwork, Identities, and Intersectionality: Negotiating Gender, Race, Class, Religion, Nationality, and Age in the Research Field Abroad / Whites