Between 2016 and 2019 I conducted over two years of fieldwork in Sierra Leone on the relationship between the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the ex-combatant community. My work examines ex-combatants’ experiences of the TRC and draws a more complex picture than the binary labels of ‘perpetrator’ and ‘victim’ allow. Ex-combatants are frequent objects of research, so much so that many are now seeking to capitalise on their background by commercialising their research participation.
With exposure comes expectation
When I first met Alusine, he was hesitant to be interviewed. He said that he was “tired of white people coming and asking about our experiences and our needs”. He was not alone in his research and intervention fatigue. Sierra Leone is a popular place for conducting studies of ex-combatants, as well as for peace and conflict research more generally. Many ex-combatants I met had prior experience as research subjects. Some had been tapped several times, which is unsurprising given that researchers frequently share contacts.
Engaging the same participants over and over again naturally impacts their interview expectations, a situation exacerbated by the high number of development interventions in Sierra Leone. Such interventions often mirror research practices and are experienced similarly by participants, though their purposes differ. It’s important to acknowledge the compound effect of these different factors, and researchers should consider the level of aggregate exposure when selecting cases and populations.
