Practical suggestions for conducting oral histories and semi- structured interviews in the pilot-phase

The only structure is provided by the selection of a specific point in time as the focus of the research. The narration has to emerge from it. A very general indication for the oral histories you will have to collect can be starting from 1984, the year of famine, which also saw the first massive involvement of the international community in Darfur. You can than move to the change in regime of 1989 and analyze how the interviewees frame this. After having collected the narrations of these events and transitions, you can proceed towards the more recent ones. In addition, choosing a point which is far enough from the most current events can help in setting a relaxed environment for the narration and in reducing some of the resistances the informants may have at the beginning.