ABSTRACT
Using literacy practices in the newly independent post-apartheid Namibia as a lens through which to examine the effects of globalisation, this broad case study looks at issues surrounding tourism, state control and the new forces of consumerism. By placing literacy at the centre of an investigation into social and cultural change as experienced by individuals, Papen shows that in times of change, reading and writing are always implicated in structures of power and inequality. The book considers language practices that can exclude some members of Namibian society and also looks at the strategies used by local people to accommodate and even embrace the onward march of global English and the influx of foreign visitors, practices and modes of commerce and interaction.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |43 pages
Introduction and background
chapter |11 pages
Introduction to the ethnographic context
part |48 pages
Everyday uses of literacy
chapter |16 pages
‘Everything is in English'
part |71 pages
Literacy and tourism
chapter |17 pages
Visit ‘one of the most untamed and beautiful parts of wild Africa'
part |30 pages
Conclusions