Displaced: The Human Cost of Development and Resettlement by Olivia Bennett and Christopher McDowell (review)

Activist oral history has come of age. Oral historyˏ which began in 1948 as a movement to interview and preserve the memories of prominent people in the United Statesˏ has in recent years turned much of its attention to survivorsˏ the poorˏ the dispossessedˏ and marginalized populations around the world. A far cry from the early approach that emphasized ″movers and shakersˏ″ or the ″history from the bottom up″ response in the 1970sˏ oral history practice today encompasses complex issues of shared authorityˏ awareness-raisingˏ advocacyˏ policyˏ human rightsˏ transformationˏ and access.

Displaced: The Human Cost of Development and Resettlement is a fine example of using oral history to empower people and to affect policy globally. Authors Olivia Bennett and Christopher McDowell use individual stories collected between 1997 and 2003 to convey the suffering caused by development-created involuntary resettlement in Kenyaˏ Botswanaˏ Namibiaˏ Lesothoˏ Indiaˏ and Pakistan. In addition to oral historyˏ methodologies of psychology and economicsˏ along with ethnographic data and statisticsˏ are used to interpret narrators′ experiences.

The details of displacement events on two continents (Africa and Asia) are riveting. The book is structured around eight case studiesˏ with detailed chapter notes and select bibliography. These case studies are comprised of interpretive textˏ evocative oral history samplesˏ some mapsˏ and black-and-white photographs of the participants. One narratorˏ Gul Bibiˏ became displaced in Pakistan when she was eleven. Her family′s departure was a ″calamity.″ She recallsˏ ″I had a great emotional attachment with my village … How could we accept having to vacate that land that was ours? That was our home … It was a catastrophe; everyone was weeping″ (42).

Since the primary resource for the studies in Displaced are the oral histories themselvesˏ the quality and interpretation of the methodology are central to any assessment of the work as a whole. The authorsˏ in the chapter titled ″The Individual Voice: The Challenges and Benefits of Listening to Personal Narrativesˏ″ display a thorough knowledge and familiarity with the oral history movement and its standards through their involvement with Panos Londonˏ a global network of NGOs that has adapted ″oral history methodology to the development context″ (xi). Among its contributions to oral history is its pioneering volume Listening for a Change (London: Panos Publicationsˏ 1993) by Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson.

Bennett and McDowellˏ working out of Londonˏ are well aware of the challenges of the oral history process. They have considered every aspectˏ from training workshops to future uses of interviews. They discuss the pros and cons of insiders versus outsiders as interviewers and narrators. They care about translation issuesˏ power relationshipsˏ asking open-ended questionsˏ the literacy of interviewers and transcribersˏ compensationˏ rights and releases (verbal and recorded at the time of the interview)ˏ biasˏ and fluency versus fidelity. But when it comes to access to the materials createdˏ the deviations (orˏ perhapsˏ innovations) from traditional oral history guidelines become clear.

As stated in a section titled ″Advocacy and Awareness-Raisingˏ″ one of the most important reasons for the dissemination of the oral histories conducted for this Resettlement Interview Collection is to ″raise awareness of the narrator′s concerns and experiences among a wider audienceˏ″ followed by ″the development of local publications and communication activities″ (25). The needs of this project were vastly different from projects conducted in a more standardized academic settingˏ and some standards might be impossible to implement when working on this scale (see The Principles for Oral History and Best Practices for Oral Historyˏ accessed April 13ˏ 2013ˏ http://www.oralhistory.org/about/principles-and-practices/). Given the difficulties faced in finding interviewers in eight countriesˏ locating three hundred narratorsˏ coping with fifteen local languages and translationsˏ coordinating training sessions and workflowˏ and organizing meetings over vast distancesˏ the results are more than impressive. Given the goal of creating a more nuanced and realistic picture of development initiatives and their impact and disseminating...