Field research in Africa

Many people may have asked you the question "why go to Africa"? This is something that my parents used to do when I first decided to go. In their minds, there's just not enough attractions in Africa that can make up for the potential risk that I was about to take. Is this really so? Here I would like to explain why anthropologists go to Africa and what we do there.

One of the main reasons we go to Africa for field research is that the materials that we study are located on the continent. For example, as I mentioned in the previous blog, chimpanzees and gorillas are only found in the forests of Africa today. So if we want to study them, we have to go there. For some of us who study the archaeological and paleontological record of the continent, it is the same story: we can't bring the artifacts or fossils out of the countries of origin.

A baboon family resting on the ground

Depending on what we do, the nature of our field research in Africa can differ quite a lot. Primatological field research can happen in a wide range of habitats going from lowland forests, savannas, to highland grasslands. This is because the primates of interest can live in diverse environments. For example, most baboons are terrestrial animals that mostly move on the ground. So a typical environment that they live in is the savannas. Others such as the black and white colobus monkey are tree dwellers that only live in forested environments. Because most of these primates are found in remote and protected areas, most of the challenges in our field work involves moving our supplies to the location, setting up camps, and routines to tracking the animals daily. This is manageable for most of us but it could be much more than an adventure for some! Here I am sharing one episode from the Leakey Foundation podcast that has some of the stories from the field.



For some of us who do archaeological and paleontological field research, the situations are very different. Because we don't necessarily study the living primates, the "field" environment could be as simple as just someone's backyard where fossils and artifacts are found. But in most cases, our field research happens in really dry and open environments because there's minimal plant or animal disturbance to the fossils and artifacts of our interest.

Excavation at a paleontological site near the Kenyan-Ethiopian border

I study early human evolution in its environmental context: what are the animals found alongside human ancestors, what are the habitats that they lived in. In order to collect new fossil materials where we can gather data from, we travel to remote areas where fossils have been found in previous surveys. The place where I work is close to the Kenyan-Ethiopian border where most people are pastoralsts who herd there livestock for a living. 

A Daasanach herder and his cattle

Typically, when we go to the field, we go on week long surveys trying to locate where the fossils are. We usually hire field assistants from the local communities to join us for the surveys. More often than not, there are no roads in the field and we really rely on the knowledge of our field assistants to find our ways around. After reaching the general area of interest, we make a camp, set up the kitchen and work from there. Because it is really hot and dry most of the time there, our days start very early in the morning when the sun is not so relentless. We go for surveys until it is about 1:00 pm when it gets so hot (~105 F/ 40 C) that we have to stop for two hours to avoid dehydration. At around 3:00, we go back to our surveys until it is almost dark and we call it a day. 

Field assistants surveying on barren lands

There can be a lot of challenges for this type of field work that we do. First of all, it is so dry there that we need to transport all the water we will need for our camp, which is not an easy task. It also gets so hot and dusty that sometimes our electronics stop working! This is not so good when we rely so much on GPS units in our surveys. Finally, sometimes we have visitors in our camp! It could be as good as some friendly neighbors and their goats and camels, or as bad as hyenas and jackals that steal our food and boots at night, or even worse when we are caught in the middle of a tribal conflict! 

Our water supply in the camp

If all goes well, at the end of the day, we really enjoy a nice volleyball game just to add more sweat and fun to the formula of field research. Despite the different challenges we have in a home away from homes, we are good friends and a family after all!

A volleyball game in the bush!

In a nutshell, there are always many reasons to go to a different country, for work or for fun. And a country in Africa is not necessarily less than others, as long as you know what to look for.

Here is more about what I did in the field last season, if you are interested.