POWER, IDENTITY, AND HISTORY IN CENTRAL BOTSWANA

This analysis offers an examination of two larger theoretical question s. The first is the question of theorizing local-global relations; the second concerns the value of the concept of resistance. The essay des cribes the emergence of a new village community at the rural periphery of eastern Botswana. In exploring in great detail the complex struggl es that have constituted the local politics in this rural periphery an d the engagement of such local struggles with national and transnation al forces, I wish to examine the way collective identities, social spa ce, and social relations have shifted in the course of the past decade or more in Botswana.