For Your Own Good: Paternalism and Patriarchy in Urban Namibia

Authors

  • John Alexander Pysklywec

Abstract

Using the case of the informal settlement of Havana 6, Namibia, I argue that apartheid in Namibia created a highly paternalistic and patriarchal state that racially divided the urban landscape. This state structure continues to operate through the marginalization of racialized lower classes. This is achieved through the state rhetoric policies coupled with a public discourse that constructs certain groups of people as dirty and incapable of comprehending what is ‘best for them’. I demonstrate how apartheid policies have entrenched systematic discrimination against poor, non-white citizens and how the language and actions of municipal authorities is used to place thousands of people in a state of contested precarious existence.

Author Biography

John Alexander Pysklywec

John Alexander Pysklywec is in his first year of the Master of Arts program at the University of British Columbia, and graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Arts in (Human) Geography. His research interests primarily involve interactions within and between state and non-state actor(s) in a North American context. His three main areas of focus are: race, gender, and identity politics; nationalism, national imaginaries, colonialism; and peace, oppression, and contestation. He specifically is researching the social/cultural impacts of increasing militarization and (fear of) violence along the US/Mexico border using an embodied queer, feminist, anti-colonial, and anti-racism lens.

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Issue

Vol. 13 (2012)

Section

Papers / Articles

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