Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences
Volume 23, No. 2, 2025
DOI: 10.36108/ijss/5202.32.0201
Navigating the Challenges of Conducting Ethnographic Research on Zoonotic Diseases Transmission in a Livestock Market in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Adeponle Olayode Adeoye, Olufunke Adegoke, and Ayodele Samuel Jegede
Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
Zoonotic diseases constitute a major risk to the global public health. Livestock markets have been identified as one of the major hotspots of zoonotic diseases transmission. Ethnography of humananimal coexistence in such markets has been identified as a crucial research methodology that can provide deeper insights into how transmission occur in such spaces. However, little has been documented on the challenges of conducting ethnography in such a highly social and culturally sensitive environment. The objective of this paper is to provide insights into the challenges of conducting ethnographic study on zoonotic transmission in a livestock market in Nigeria, and how the challenges were navigated. The paper leverages a six-month ethnographic fieldwork experience on the social organisation of Akinyele livestock market, and zoonotic transmission in Ibadan, Nigeria. The challenges encountered during the research were jotted in a field note and narratively analysed. Gaining trust of the market actors was highly challenging at the early phase of the research as some market actors perceived the researcher to be a government spy, or social media content creator who would reveal market practices to the public. Market actors were also reluctant to discuss zoonotic diseases at first. These challenges were eventually navigated through social skills such as patience, persistence, informal conversations with market actors to build relationship and trust, leveraging on influence of key market actors, as well as learning about the trade from the market actors and not just to collect data. The paper concludes that while ethnography of human-animal coexistence in livestock markets can provide substantial knowledge on zoonotic diseases, trust which is highly essential to the research process and willingness to discuss the study phenomenon among animal dealers can be challenging at the early phase of the research. However, this challenge could be navigated with social skills. The paper recommends that researchers conducting ethnographic research on zoonotic diseases in African livestock markets should prioritize developing social skills to enhance data collection.
Keywords: Social skills, zoonotic diseases, livestock market, ethnography, Nigeria