Paper short abstract:

This paper explores conceptions of selfhood among men in Namibia and the ways that these are made and unmade in relation to others. It focuses on relatively short periods of isolation that men would sometimes subject themselves to, as a time of intense self-reflection on identity and belonging.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores conceptions of selfhood among young men and the ways that these are made and unmade in relation to others. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Swakopmund and Windhoek, Namibia, the paper focuses specifically on relatively short periods of isolation which men would sometimes submit themselves to, most usually after significant major life events such as a death of a close relative, or other times of major life stresses. Known by several names – uudhigu (Oshindonga) or uupakadhi (Oshikwanyama) – these periods were times removed from friends and family (indeed, from all other people) and of intense reflection on matters of the heart, as well as self-identity and belonging. Described to me as a distinctly ‘masculine’ way of handling emotional issues in a highly gendered society, self-isolation as way of navigating such times was also seen as problematic by men themselves – as well as self-reflection, it was also a time of danger. The paper elaborates the social and cultural factors that enable these periods of isolation to occur, as well as men’s reported thought processes and experiences during those times.