Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the creative process behind transforming ethnographic notes into a creative story. Inspired by Ubuntu methodologies, I reflect on ‘Roots’ a short-story on the enjoyment and care of cooking and sharing food with forced migrant women in South Africa during the pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the creative process behind transforming ethnographic notes of the pandemics into a Ubuntu story. The aim here is to engage with elements that are essential to the ethnographic process, such as sensorial and spiritual experiences, that are often left out by mainstream academia. Inspired by Ubuntu storytelling, an African methodology that takes the art of storytelling as an interactive tool for critical knowledge, I explore how personal interconnections with interlocutors in my research lead to ‘Roots’: a short-story on how food works as refuge of joy and hope in the outset of the COVID19 pandemic. This story is based on my field notes within Food for Change, an online cooking project with forced migrant women from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The project, as well as the story, is centered in presenting alternative narratives on forced migrants’ experiences of the pandemic. While very real struggles are not overlooked, the focus here is on the women’s capacities to cultivate and share enjoyment and care, for themselves and their loved ones, through cooking and sharing food. The process of crafting a riveting Ubuntu story is then part of a dialectic process to honor the wisdoms of migrant communities manifested in non-verbal elements, such as flavors and smells, that have the potential to nourish a more reflexive and humble scholarship.