San, Sovereignty and the Unpredictability of Messy Fieldwork

This article addresses issues of Indigeneity, considering how the North American concept of “visual sovereignty” may be manifest in relation to Kalahari San communities. In doing so we ask; Who has allocative control over incoming resources and image constructions? Who decides which researchers are granted access under what conditions? How are the terms of visual sovereignty negotiated between observers and observed? Who owns the representations accruing? Since visual sovereignty does not operate in a vacuum; additional forms of sovereignty also feature. A self-reflexive analysis of 30 years of multidisciplinary research conducted with Indigenous Kalahari Desert communities is the conduit through which these questions and concepts are explored. The framing metaphor is that of borders that regulate access and exclusion, and knowledge ownership of both the research participants and that of the researchers, uncovering a disjuncture between local expectations and the institutional governance of research processes. Although visual sovereignty, and sovereignty in general, has served as an interesting lens for purposes of this article, it cannot be considered an essential tool in the Southern African context.