Becoming Literate, Being Human: Adult Literacy and Moral Reconstruction in Botswana

This article draws on ethnographic research to examine relationships between literacy and identity for newly literate men and women in the southern African country of Botswana. Situating beliefs about literacy in the intersection of evangelical missionary discourse, colonial‐era labor practices, and modernity rhetoric, I argue that literacy is attributed with the power to transform oneself and describe an adult learning community that based pedagogy in these shared beliefs about literacy.  [literacy practices, adult education, southern Africa, ethnographic research]