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Questionnaires and Interviews in African Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

G. J. A. Ojo
G. J. A. Ojo
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Ife
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Extract

Many of the fundamental data required for the study of history, sociology, politics, or economics in Africa are stored up in the memories of a few elders, chiefs, priests, palace and town historians, and in the general knowledge of the average man and woman. To make such data available, the techniques of questionnaires and interviews are increasingly being employed to tap these unwritten sources. But great care needs to be taken in preparing the questions, studying the problems likely to arise where they are used, and in assessing the results. The care necessary on these matters has been well indicated by Girard:

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , December 1967 , pp. 571 - 577
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

1 Girard, Plain, ‘Opinion Surveys in Developing Countries’, in International Social Science Journal (Paris), xv, 1, 1963, p. 8.Google Scholar

2 Cf. Payne, S. L., The Art of Asking Questions (Princeton, 1951), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

1 Sidney, E. and Brown, M., The Skills of Interviewing (London, 1961), p. 216.Google Scholar

1 Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Igun, A. A., Population Census of Nigeria, May1962: list of historical eventsfor the determination of individual ages (unpublished), Ibadan, 1962.Google Scholar See the extracts from this reproduced by Aluko, S. A., ‘How Many Nigerians?’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, III, 3, 1965.Google Scholar