Paper short abstract:

In Swakopmund, Namibia, friendship is a way of steadying characteristically unstable financial and social lives. This paper explores friend relationships between men, contextualising them in relation to family, love, romance and homosexuality.

Paper long abstract:

Swakopmund, Namibia, is a city characterised by insecurity, instability and inequality. In this context, friendships between men became ways of stabilising both current finances as well as hopes and dreams for the future. This notion of friendship, however, runs counter to a western conception of these relationships as revolving around autonomy, sentiment, individualism, lack of ritual and lack of instrumentality (Killick and Desai 2010). In Swakopmund friendships were highly instrumental; they were also considered dangerous because of the intimacies that they involved.

Whilst these friendships sometimes involved sex, they should not be seen as 'boyfriends' or 'affairs'; indeed, in the majority of cases these relationships were known and approved of by the wives involved. Amongst other men, however, they would sometimes lead to accusations of homosexuality which was more symptomatic of jealousy than it was any real comment on the nature of friendship. Indeed, it was jealousy that would often mean these relationships were kept secret as far as possible. Defined intersubjectively, these friendships were transgressive insofar as they resisted definition by outside agency; in that way friendship is a powerful relationship which exists outside of state regulation.

Based on two years fieldwork, this paper is an exploraton of friendship in several ways: firstly, the importance of material things in creating and maintaining these bonds. Second, friendship in relation to love, family, romance and homosexuality.