Anachisale’s life: narration and ethics in feminist anthropology

Project Lead – Jessica Johnson 

Taking inspiration from feminist commitments to experience as the basis for theory and politics, and the recognition of difference as a potential source of strength, this project focuses on the life narrative of a rural Malawian woman, Anachisale, who has been my host, friend and ‘key informant’ for sixteen years.

The collaborative production of her biography is made possible by our long-term relationship as research participant/anthropologist, and by a methodological commitment to reciprocal travel and mutual observation. The resulting monograph will critically reflect upon the theory and practice of feminisms, interrogating the virtues of categories such as ‘academic’, ‘vernacular’, ‘African’ and ‘Western’, whilst also grappling with questions of representation and challenging established practices of anthropological knowledge production and dissemination.

Harnessing recent developments in collaborative and biographical anthropology, our book will deepen understandings of women’s lives in contemporary Africa and advance the practice of feminist-anthropological collaboration across difference. This research has been funded by a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (2023-25) and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2025-26).