Paper short abstract:

Based on 24 months fieldwork in Swakopmund, Namibia between 2014 and 2016, this paper explores the disparity between men's representations of themselves and the stories of their everyday lives, created as they build lives for themselves in one Namibia's third largest city.

Paper long abstract:

At the last census (2011), Swakopmund was the third largest city in Namibia. With the population steadily increasing, it continues to be a draw for young men from all over Africa. During my fieldwork, the city was often described to me as a paradise, with easy living and the ready availability of money often from overseas: tourists on one hand, mining on the other, with other opportunities such as sporadic work on Hollywood movies. Swakopmund is seen as 'safe urbanity' - away from rural life with the opportunities of a city but less challenging than larger metropoles such Windhoek.

These (often off-the-cuff) remarks bely a different reality. The disparity between men's representations of themselves - expressed through a culture of 'machismo' - and the stories of their everyday lives indicates a longing for 'something else'. Men project an image of 'traditional dominance' in their relationships with women, who increasingly desire more companionate relationships in line with changing gender norms. Men must often submit to the desires of their wives and girlfriends for fear of losing them to a 'better man', one who is able to provide more.

This paper focuses on the lives and roles of men (and, by extension, women) in Swakopmund. It concentrates especially on men who have worked in the uranium mining industry; looking at how they represent themselves to (and co-exist with) other men, and how they handle their changing relatedness to women in the city of Swakopmund.