The rapidly growing presence of new media in postcolonial Namibia since the turn of
the Millennium has significance for cultural and lifestyle transformations in the
country. Earlier entrenched social identities shaped by former colonialism, indigenous
tradition and current postcolonial political power relations, are under pressure in the
face of cultural globalisation. Anzaldúa’s idea of ‘borderlands’ is regarded here as
valuable in establishing a metaphor for the type of negotiated cultural space Namibian
youth encounter. This article examines the characteristics of change from the
perspective of young Windhoek adults’ experiences of Internet social networks, and
presents empirical grounded theory evidence of their cultural practices and ambiguous
response to what they find at the cultural edges of the global outside. How youth
negotiate mediated relations of power emanating from global culture is established
through affirming three conceptualisations of actor orientations to media: cultural
expropriationist, cultural traditionalist and cultural representationalist. The study
concludes that new media is active in identity and cultural change, while in the same
instance social tension over matters of culture appear to be emerging in the country.