Dominican Republic, and the villageOmungwalume, a small rural Ovambo
settlement in Northern Namibia. On those occasions and again this time
around onVerdipleinI had positioned myself in a closed parochial setting
(Lofland, 1998),where the regulars are all well acquainted with each other
and a newcomer is immediately noticed. For the less involved passer-by I
stood out because I am an obviously well-to-do, unaccompanied, white,
female.
Hence on this square I was immediately and without hesitation recog-
nizedand registered as not belonging: I was marked and stereotyped as
The Other. The most explicit othering was exercised by the young male
adolescents on the square. The Dutch phrase commonly used for these
young men is ‘hangjongeren’, which can be translated into ‘youths that are
just hanging about’. The phrase ‘hangjongeren’ has the same strong norma-
tive undertone as the awkward translation does. Initially in my field notes I
referred to these young men as ‘street corner boys’, in reminiscence of the
terminology of William H. Whyte and his work on Street Corner Society
(first published in 1943;1993(1943)).As this denomination plays an impor-
tant part in the course of this narrative, I maintain this terminology in this
text, albeit in parenthesis.^8
In the course of my fieldwork on the three different sites for the research
on bans on public use of soft drugs, I have been ascribed various roles by
the field. The top three roles ascribed to me on the different field sites were
undercover police officer, journalist and drugs dealer. To be clear, none of
the ascribed rolespolice officer, journalist or drugs dealerwere good.
None of these roles facilitated in establishing an easy rapport with key
informants, and hence access to the data and insights I sought for my
research. Instead, the ascribed roles induced muteness and animosity in my
prospective respondents. As I tried to indicate above, being identified as
‘out of place’ by my research setting was not a new experience. What was a
novelty was the thorough disbelief in my role and capacity as a researcher.
My field simply was not buying it.
OnVerdiplein, I was predominantly ascribed to be an undercover police
officera few times I got bawled out for being a journalist, no one on
Verdipleinever mistook me for a drugs dealer. Often I was challenged as
being police, or some other kind of institutional enforcer, and sometimes
they tried to ‘smoke me out’. An example of this is the exchange depicted
below, dating from the start of my fieldwork onVerdiplein. The day before
I had entered the Egyptian grillroom situated on the square, to write out
some notes. The grillroom is a popular hangout for the older ‘street boys’,
who use it as an extension of the square.
4 DANIELLE CHEVALIER