Writing Windhoek. Multiple Representations of the City

“Small” cities have something to offer in terms of theoretical resources and renewing our understanding of urban life. In other words, all cities do matter and are therefore worthy of drawing from. Condemning “insignificant” cities to oblivion is a travesty that will leave urban studies poorer. Importantly, no city is reducible to one register in the representation of its essence.

In Writing Windhoek, Ellison Tjirera makes an attempt to revivify the Capital city of Namibia and treat it as an idea meriting a closer examination and reflection. In illuminating the essence of Windhoek’s cityness, this book traces its history of spatial segregation, an imprint that continues to define contemporary city life. The cultural memory of Windhoek is analysed as a way of accessing what is otherwise a not so obvious strand through which to understand a city that has escaped a sustained scholarly rendition. In his further layering of the city, Tjirera provides a portrait of Windhoek through urban fantasies, regimes of the legal, and how migration is implicated in shaping social heterogeneity and concatenations of various urban rhythms.