On the post-structuralist critique of development: a view from north-west Namibia

Abstract

The Namibian government's long-standing plan to dam the Kunene River has generated heated discussion on a number of development issues, both within and outside the country. This article examines the discourses of the various groupings in the so-called Epupa debate by paying special attention to the ways they represent ‘development’, the project and the affected community; and it explores aspects of agency by focusing on Himba people's attempts to assert opposition to the project. The Epupa case also affords us the opportunity to evaluate aspects of the post-structuralist critique of development. The article suggests that the currently fashionable critique offers a simplistic interpretation of the development process and reveals the need for a more thorough (and insightful) scholarly engagement with development. 1Assistant Professor of Socio-cultural Anthropology, Department of Social Science, Roosevelt Academy, Utrecht University. Based on research carried out in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1999, this paper is a revised version of a dissertation submitted to the University of Cambridge in partial fulfilment of the MPhil degree in Social Anthropology (Friedman, 1999). The author would like to thank Leo Howe, Keith Hart, Alan Macfarlane, Fatima Müller-Friedman and two anonymous reviewers for their encouragement and/or critical readings of earlier drafts; and the English Speaking Union of San Francisco, Darwin College, Sir Bartle Frere's Memorial Fund, and the Rivers Video Project for generous financial assistance that made the research possible.