Vol. 34 No. 2 (2025): NJAS Special Issue: Negotiating Consent in African Studies
Special issue: Negotiating Consent in African Studies

“What Are We Agreeing Upon?” Negotiating Consent in Research with Indigenous Communities in the DRC

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An Ansoms
Université Catholique de Louvain
Bio
Vedaste Cituli
Bio

Published 2025-06-23

Keywords

  • research ethics,
  • indigenous populations,
  • consent,
  • DR Congo

Copyright (c) 2025 An Ansoms, Vedaste Cituli

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

“What Are We Agreeing Upon?” Negotiating Consent in Research with Indigenous Communities in the DRC. (2025). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 34(2), 142–157. https://doi.org/10.53228/3a5txw13

Abstract

Ethical review boards in social science research require researchers to solicit informed and voluntary consent from their research participants. However, how is consent negotiated in the field when working with research participants who have different perspectives on consent, privacy, and intellectual property than what is comprehended in research ethics protocols? This paper cites four critical anecdotes drawn from field research with indigenous communities in the DRC. We argue that these anecdotes are illustrative of ethical dilemmas in relation to consent that emerge when researchers navigate between Eurocentric research practices and indigenous knowledge systems. We show that consent is not a fixed and complete process but an ongoing negotiation between the researcher and his interlocutors.  

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