Architectures of Self in Post-Colonial Namibia

• Applicant: Dr. Jack Boulton
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology ; African, American and Oceania Studies
• Term: from 2022 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 503940884

Important conversations are currently in progress in Namibia regarding the legacies of its colonial past. Whilst increasing attention has been given to the status of the remaining German colonial buildings in Namibia and their place in a culture of remembrance, the role of this architecture in the formation of contemporary masculinities has been less well explored. Taking the form of statues of soldiers, former prison camps, colonial headquarters and barracks, in Swakopmund and Windhoek the physical structures themselves are representative of colonial violence, a constant reminder of the period they were built in and of particular constructions of identity which are embedded in history. Understanding that architecture symbolises and reproduces the memory of the past in the present, and that the urban environment can have a constitutive effect on the construction of the self, this project explores the ways in which architectural legacies shape contemporary male lifeworlds. Based on fieldwork in Swakopmund and Windhoek, Namibia, the project aims to describe and fully understand the uses, experiences and meanings of these constructions in both historical and contemporary contexts. By establishing a link between the built environment and processes of shaping the self, this project seeks to understand how these architectural legacies are replicated in the present - for example, in recent constructions by Namibian and foreign firms that imitate historical styles and propagate specific representations of masculinity. Although urban Namibian masculinities are specifically problematised in terms of violence - especially gendered violence - they remain remarkably under-researched. Men are often seen as perpetrators rather than victims of violence. Therefore, this project analyses men and masculinities in relation to both colonial history and more contemporary processes of masculine selfhood. It contributes to three main areas: masculinities studies, architectural anthropology, and anthropology of the self.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position