Of friends and kollegen: understanding male friendships in Swakopmund, Namibia

Abstract

This article explores understandings of friendship between men in Swakopmund, Namibia. These friendships sat (sometimes uncomfortably) closely with notions of “being gay,” in that they were often companionate relationships of caring and intimacy that also involved sex and exchange. Yet the terminology of sexual identity was usually rejected by these men, and they were also normally involved in long-term relationships with women. These friendships are contextualised in three ways. They are described in relation to a growing LGBTQIA+ movement in Namibia and through the local notion of kollegen, “other men” who had arrived in the city but who could not be trusted. The last section examines some of the issues involved in these friendships, particularly in terms of fighting and jealousy. The article adds to a growing body of literature that calls for locally situated understandings of masculinities in African contexts.