Youth, elites and distinction in a Northern Namibian town
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2003
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Abstract
This thesis illuminates the process of elite formation and the making of the public space in Rundu, an African middle-range town, against the background of wider transformations in postcolonial Namibia. I address these theoretical issues by bringing to the fore an intergenerational dialogue in the public space between two generations of elite, the founding black power elite and an emergent and upwardly mobile youth elite. I start this thesis by recognising the relevance of small and middle-range town in Africa to the understanding of processes of social stratification and wider postcolonial debates on governance
In calling for research beyond the limits of locality I show for Rundu that such towns are not marginal centers, but straddle the limits of locality mediating between the center and the periphery of the state. Through a historical perspective, from the colonial to the postcolonial time, I analyse the central role of Rundu and the emergence in it of an elite of educationalists
This black power elite, I argue, has been fundamental for promoting nation-building at local level and to the shaping of Rundu public space. I here show the formation and consolidation of this elite and its predicaments vis a vis the emergence of a resurgent white settler elite in Rundu public space. The analysis advances an alternative to an Afro-pessimist view, prominent in postcolonial studies, that African elites rule the postcolony, largely, if not excusively, through authoritarian, greedy and corrupt practices
As a contribution to a critical public anthropology, the main account bring to the fore the often unrecognised role of the elites in promoting the public good and civility, both through a civic discourse and through actual practice in public life. Admittedly, what many of the people themselves fear is that recently the Namibian government has taken an authoritarian turn
This is particularly true for an upwardly mobile and ambitious youth elite. Increasingly disenchanted for the directions taken by nation-building this youth morally reason on the delivery of governance and question the founding elite narrative of sacrifice and professionalism. Here I put forward an alternative view of youth in intergenerational relations, so often stereotyped as resistance, rebellion and protest. What I document instead is the gaining by youth of a greater yet contested share in public space through their competition for distinction, public esteem and the recognition of their merits as elites.
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Anthropology, Education, Civil society