Paper short abstract:

This paper sensitively explores conceptions of suicide in Swakopmund, Namibia. Interpreting this small, coastal city as a 'suicide field', the paper reconfigures suicide as 'self death', positing that there are key factors missing in the study of suicide in African locales.

Paper long abstract:

In June and July 2016, just as I was finishing up the largest part of my fieldwork in Swakopmund, a city on the western coast of Namibia, researchers at Namibia's Ministry for Heath and Social Services (MHSS) were conducting their own fieldwork for what would become one of the largest (if not the largest) surveys of suicide prevalence, causes and precipitating factors to have taken place on the African continent. The results, published in only 2018, provided a fascinating - if tragic - insight into the significance of suicide practice in Namibia. Many of these deaths were concentrated in Swakopmund and its surrounding Erongo region.

During my later fieldwork, I became aware of rumours of a high level of suicide migration to Swakopmund - people, apparently, were travelling long distances in order to suicide in this small, coastal city. When I asked why that might be, the response was perhaps cryptic - 'the crocodile is stronger in the water'. Yet, interpreting this statement in terms of witchcraft reveals a different layer to suicide practice - the involvement of witches, ancestors and the world of immortal beings. Handling the topic sensitively as it should be, this paper discusses the 'suicide field', reconfiguring suicide as 'self-death' in the urban context of Swakopmund and positing that there are essential elements to African suicides which are missing from contemporary theory.