Abstract

GUIJARRO, Ester Massó. Ethnographic narration of a royal meeting: a visit to the Mafwe Khuta, Caprivi region, Namibian State. Etnográfica [online]. 2008, vol.12, n.2, pp.525-561. ISSN 0873-6561.

This article presents a classic ethnographic narrative through thick description. The anthropological events of a visit to a Khuta - traditional authority - mafwe in the Caprivian region of Namibia (bordering Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Angola), are analysed, through the inevitable subjectivity of fieldwork (considering it as richness, in opposite at an impossible neutrality). Ethnographical narrative is used as a pretext to illuminate some of the crucial comprehension keys on the current relations between autochthonous traditional authorities and the Namibian government, in the wake of the secession revolt on August 1999, which involved the political exile of the former mafwe chief - splinter supporter - opposite the current one - government follower. Through ethnographical subjectivity, it is intended a human accurate complex approach to a thick social reality, full in its turn of various subjectivities, historical contingencies and inescapable vital arbitrariness.

Keywords : ethnographic narration; Caprivi (Namibia); thick description; mafwe traditional authority; armed secession.

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