Rural boredom: atmospheres of blocked promises

Abstract

AbstractThis article asks why Namibians complain that rural communities have become ǀowesa (boring) and why they describe a feeling of pointlessness. After Namibia gained independence in 1990, those who migrated to the towns often progressed economically, while those who remained in the rural hinterlands became the spectators of their success. At the same time, they experienced their efforts as having been ‘blocked’ (ǁkhaehe) not only by the economy, as the literature suggests, but also by the harsh arid environment, the state, others, and their own bodies. To theorize the shared affectivity these experiences create, I mobilize phenomenological theories that take emotions out of the ‘box’ of the psyche and consider them as atmospheres that hover in situations where they transcend people, things, and activities, creating rural boredom. ǀOweb rides on your back, people say. Turning emotions inside out allows them to be politicized by demonstrating how boredom grows in the gap created by promising a different future while at the same time preventing it. While people strive, and sometimes manage, to get ǀoweb off their backs, theorizing boredom as an atmosphere makes it clear that it will return unless these conditions change.