John T. Friedman's book provides a well-written and provocative account of post-apartheid politics in Namibia. His main quest is to understand how Kaokolanders imagine and interact with the Namibian state. While many studies focus on the state itself as a way to understand its citizens, Friedman flips this analysis and considers what we can learn about the state through an examination of the ‘political imagination’ of a group of people (p. 10). For Friedman, an examination of political imagination involves focusing on how Namibians ‘perceive and talk about, represent and construct, and experience the Namibian state’ (p. 8) and it reminds students of Africa that ‘Western conceptions of politics may not apply to other settings’ (p. 7).

Friedman describes Kaokolanders as those people who live in and are more broadly connected with the north-west region of Kaokoland. He notes that ‘marginality provokes imagination’ (p. 13) and because Kaokolanders live at the margins of state authority, there is an even greater opportunity to understand how political imagination becomes an element in the governing process. The different methodologies Friedman utilizes to capture how the Kaokolanders imagine the state, such as participant observation, formal and informal interviews, archival research, and the photographic narratives project, enable him to make a persuasive argument that the various norms associated with paternalism provide an important lens through which people imagine and interact with the state. Friedman situates his analysis in a broader literature that includes anthropological, historical, and political science accounts of how people view the state from a bottom-up perspective. As an anthropologist, Friedman brings a keen awareness of how his very presence as a scholar (re)structures the intersection between state and society and his ability to develop this particular thread of analysis throughout the book is impressive and illuminating. Also, with so many studies of the state conducted through a top-down perspective, his analysis is refreshing, revealing, and provocative.

After providing for his basic framework and highlighting the contours of the political discourse that developed between state and society during the precolonial and colonial eras, Friedman delves into two issues that are particularly perplexing for many African states today: the recognition of customary law and practices and the nature of chieftaincy authority. Because of his bottom-up approach, Friedman offers a wealth of fascinating information that demonstrates the choices that people make on a daily basis with respect to the legitimacy of the state and traditional authorities.

For example, to highlight the different ways in which ‘paternalistic imaginings shape state legal processes in Kaokoland’, Friedman describes how state and customary courts resolve conflicts. In one of the most illuminating chapters in the book, ‘Judicial statements’ (Chapter Six), the author provides partial transcripts of court proceedings in both settings to highlight the various norms and practices that are at work. These transcripts are incredibly revealing because they provide the reader with the actual voices of people who must navigate the distinct, yet overlapping, norms, rules, and processes that exist in the civil and customary legal systems.

Consistent with his argument that the notion of paternalism structures state-society relations, and the importance of chieftaincy norms and institutions, Friedman reveals that for many Kaokolanders the central function of the post-apartheid, democratic Namibian state is to provide development for its citizens. Of course, due to its lack of capacity, especially in the rural areas, the state is limited in its ability to do so and Friedman finds that people begin to question the legitimacy of the state, and the democracy, and that many long for the days of apartheid rule. More importantly, because the state is not able to meet its basic expectations, many people continue to utilize chiefs and customary courts for their daily survival strategies.

Of course, while the political imaginations that people have about the state are structured through this prism, at the same time, the state is omnipresent in their lives and its decisions still have significant social, political, and economic consequences. This is most evident in the penultimate chapter of the book where Friedman details the current chieftaincy dispute in Kaokoland. In some ways, the story that Friedman offers is one that is familiar to students of African politics and there is nothing surprising about the fact that the state continues to make contradictory decisions with respect to custom and that astute local political actors utilize the state's commitment to custom for their own gain. Yet, the current chieftaincy conflict in Kaokoland, as well as many others that exist throughout Africa, remind us that state and society are in a constant struggle for authority at the most basic level and that this is the case whether the form of rule is authoritarian or democratic.

In the end, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of state-society relations in Namibia. Anthropologists, historians, and political scientists will benefit from Friedman's conceptual frameworks and his application of these frameworks to what is happening at the local level.