Research Articles (Anthropology and Sociology)

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Browsing by Author "Akuupa, Michael"

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    From 'One Namibia, One Nation' towards 'Unity in Diversity? Shifting representations of culture and nationhood in Namibian Independence Day celebrations, 1990-2010
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Akuupa, Michael; Kornes, Godwin
    In 2010 Namibia celebrated its twentieth anniversary of independence from South African rule. The main celebrations in the country�s capital Windhoek became the stage for an impressively orchestrated demonstration of maturing nationhood, symbolically embracing postcolonial policy concepts such as �national reconciliation�, �unity� and �diversity�. At the same time, nation building in post-apartheid Namibia is characterised by a high degree of social and political fragmentation that manifests itself in cultural and/or ethnic discourses of belonging. Taking the highly significant independence jubilee as our vantage point, we map out a shift of cultural representations of the nation in Independence Day celebrations since 1990, embodied by the two prominent slogans of �One Namibia, one Nation� and �Unity in Diversity�. As we will argue, the difficult and at times highly fragile postcolonial disposition made it necessary for the SWAPO government, as primary nation builder, to accommodate the demands of regions and local communities in its policy frameworks. This negotiation of local identifications and national belonging in turn shaped, and continues to shape, the performative dimension of Independence Day celebrations in Namibia.
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    'We can be united, but we are different': discourse of difference in postcolonial Namibia
    (Forum Press, 2010) Akuupa, Michael
    Social scientists who have written about the dynamics of festival rituals have analysed such practices variously as celebrations of commonality, as the enhancement of social cohesion, or as expressions of nostalgia. Festivals have also been studied as spaces, where information is disseminated to the public. This paper demonstrates that in postcolonial Namibia, cultural festivals have become avenues where discourses of difference and belonging are emphasised and contested by local people, festival participants and state officials through a range of ethnic-cultural presentations. The paper is primarily concerned with the �making� of Kavango identity as distinctively different from that of other ethnic groups in postcolonial Namibia. This process takes place in a particular political space, that of the culture festivals, which the state has organised and staged since the mid-1990s. Every year during the Annual National Culture Festivals representatives of Namibia�s various ethnic groups gather to �showcase� and express their diversity. Representatives of the state have time and again emphasised, couched in a discourse of �unity in diversity�, the importance of bringing together the country�s previously segregated population groups. The paper shows that while the performers act out diversity through dance and other forms of cultural exhibition, the importance of belonging to the nation and a larger constituency is simultaneously highlighted.