RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Map 2: The towns (Abeokuta, Akure, Ibadan & Osogbo), South Western Nigeria, showing the scope of study
3.2 Research Techniques and Instruments
All the relevant data for this study were collected using two sets of research instruments: the primary and the secondary research instruments. The primary research instrument included Participant Observation, In-depth interview and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The secondary research instruments that were used included published and unpublished literature.
3.2.1 Pre-field
At the level of the pre-field, the researcher found it necessary to make inquiries about the area of study before going out to the field. To achieve this, he used secondary method of data collection. He consulted published and unpublished materials that helped him gain knowledge of the four towns that were chosen for this study. The researcher also read about the practice of the babaláwo and inquired about how to go about the research. This was very important for the smooth commencement of the fieldwork.
3.3.2 Fieldwork
Primary methods of data collection were employed during the course of the fieldwork.
3.3.2.1 Participant Observation
Participant observation has been noted by scholars (Becker and Geer 1967:109; Martyr and Atkinson, 1983:1) to be crucial in data gathering. The researcher was an apprentice to a babaláwo during the course of the fieldwork and this made the use of participant observation easy and possible. With this method, the patients became more disposed to the presence of the researcher and they were open to being observed during clinical sessions. The researcher was seen as ọmọ-awo (an apprentice) although the patients were informed about the research. Participant observation aided the participation of the researcher and helped him to describe and explain the behaviour of both the patients and the babaláwo. It also assisted the researcher in adjusting to a new culture through observation, thereby producing detailed descriptions of what he saw and heard in the fields.
The researcher had the opportunity to participate in the healthcare practices of the babaláwo, observing things directly as they happened, listening to patients and asking questions about symbolic acts that were observed during and after the processes of diagnosis and treatment. This enabled the researcher to note and record direct quotations from the participants (patients and babaláwo), because such quotations were pertinent to the findings of the study.
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With the use of participant observation, the researcher was able to observe the patients and their disposition to babaláwo during the clinical sessions. This made it possible to collect data and assess the disposition of the patients to Yoruba traditional healthcare method. This assessment was done because Ethno medicine has its own concept of healthcare and disease causation and in most indigenous medical systems, cultural beliefs and medicine sometimes overlap. This makes available data to be in both physical and non-physical forms.
Osunwole (1999) observed that ―ethno-botanical information may be somehow practical and quantifiable because it is concerned with genetic resources which have testable properties; but therapeutic rituals such as prayers, sacrifice, occultism and some other religious acts currently have no empirical basis because of their supernatural connection‖ (p. 169).
With the use of participant observation, the researcher was able to collect data on the patients during the clinical session so as to be able to follow through with the babaláwo‘s evaluation of the patients‘ conditions as either àmódi or àìsàn ara. The researcher listened and observed as the babaláwo asked the patients questions to know whether they (patients) had tried to diagnose and treat their conditions using Western methods.
During the course of the study, the researcher was an apprentice to Ifás san (one of the babaláwo that were interviewed) whom he visited every month. The researcher was in Ibadan for over one year and eight months. It is the practice in Yoruba healthcare for one to become an apprentice to one particular babaláwo, who serves as a link for the apprentice to some other babaláwo.
During the period of study, the researcher observed and asked questions about the tools and the techniques used by the babaláwo in their attempts to diagnose and treat àmódi. This, as noted by Osunwole (1999:172), helped to provide meanings and explained symbols and metaphors of rituals as well as interpret body signs. The researcher was seen as ọmọ-awo (an apprentice) by the other babaláwo that were interviewed. This allowed him access to clinical sessions. It also earned him the trust of the different babaláwo he interviewed and observed during their clinical sessions.
3.3.2.2 In-depth Interview
In-depth interview is a useful qualitative data collection technique that helps to carry out needs assessment, programme refinement, issue identification, and strategic planning. As a technique, In-depth interviews has been found to be most appropriate for situations which require the researcher to ask open-ended questions that elicit depth of information from relatively few people (as opposed to surveys, which tend to be more quantitative and are conducted with larger numbers of people) (Guion, 2001).
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In-depth interview involved direct conversation between the interviewer and interviewee, to help clarify things observed and resolve misconceptions (Oyeneye and Okuola, 1991). Most of the In-dept-interviews were done in Yoruba. These were later transcribed and translated for data analysis. This method helped the researcher largely when interviewing the babaláwo who had no formal education. Questions were usually spontaneous reaction to situations.
The researcher employed this method to elicit basic information from the different babaláwo and patients that were interviewed. Basic information such as names, sex, age, duration of practice of each of the babaláwo was taken; and in the case of the patients, it helped to gather data regarding their medical history, the duration of their sickness before visiting the babaláwo, the various attempts at using Western methods of healthcare to diagnose and treat the diseases and how they were referred to the babaláwo. These questions were incorporated into the basic inquiries made by the babaláwo during their clinical sessions.
This method also helped the researcher to gather data about the background and training of the babaláwo that were interviewed. These interviews were used to acquire data on the choice and the processes adopted by the babaláwo in providing healthcare.
3.3.2.3 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
A focus group discussion is ―a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging‖ (Henderson, 2009:28). This method was used to elicit information from the different groups of babaláwo that were interviewed. This became necessary and useful because among the babaláwo, it is held that no one knows it all.
The FGDs helped the researcher to gather data about the ―knowledge, attitude, belief and practices (KABP) related to health care utilization‖ (Jegede, A. 2010:9). All the FGDs had a format in order to elicit responses to meet the aim and objectives of the study; that is:
What is àmódi (somatoform disorder) in Ifá literary corpus?
How is it diagnosed?
Are there conditions that Ifá divination cannot diagnose?
How reliable is Ifá divination as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool?
Can Ifá divination work with Western method?
What are the success rates of the use of Ifá divination as a medical tool?
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The FGDs were also used as a medium to buttress the view that the practice of Ifá divination is the same everywhere among the Yoruba. The findings helped to justify the choice of four towns to represent the practice of Ifá divination among the Yoruba people in Nigeria. The FGDs clearly expressed the views of babaláwo on the possibility of diagnosing and treating àmódi.
Through the FGDs, the researcher was able to elicit methods that enjoyed the consensus of the majority of the practicing babaláwo, with regard to diagnosis and treatment of àmódi. The researcher conducted six (6) FGDs with an average of six babaláwo in each group. One FGD was conducted in each of the four towns and two extra FGDs were conducted in Ìbàdàn and Òșogbo, respectively, because of the level of involvement and commitment found among the babaláwo practising in these towns. The FGDs were carried out in Yoruba language, since almost all the babaláwo expressed themselves fluently in Yoruba language.
The researcher found out that there are still families where the father and a son or two are full-time babaláwo in Ìbàdàn and Òșogbo (Plates 6 & 7).
Plate 6: Ifasesan and his father (Ifalambe Ojekunle) who both practice as babaláwo in Ibadan. (Original, 22nd of September, 2010).
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Plate 7: Ifatayo Awogbile (middle) and his son Ifalowo (right) who are babaláwo in Osogbo (Original, 12th of June, 2010).
In cases where there are older babaláwo around the younger one, the younger babaláwo only spoke authoritatively with the permission and the backing of the father even if the son is a respectable babaláwo in his own right.
The FGDs corroborate the data gathered from the In-depth interviews and helped the researcher to resolve some cloudy issues that he observed during clinical sessions and in some practices of individual babaláwo.
3.3.3 Post-Field
After collecting data from the field, the researcher consulted published and unpublished materials to verify the data gathered from the field and to give support to the findings as well as to augment data that were not too clear as a result of the limitations encountered on the field.