Analysing Males in Africa: Certain Useful Elements in Considering Ruling Masculinities
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- In several African societies, traumatic acts of violence against women and girls go on daily – such that they may be referred to as part of undeclared yet public gender wars.
- In Manzini, Swaziland, for example, a young woman supposedly angered bus conductors so much by wearing a miniskirt that they stripped and gang-raped her at the bus terminus while spectators cheered them on (IRIN/UN Offi ce for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aff airs, 2005).
Th e “Turn to Masculinity” in Gender work and some Problems with Masculinity
- INSTRAW (no date) addresses itself to such experiences of traumas females are subjected to by males when it argues that “men are central to most acts of violence, and violence is central to being a man in many cultures” .
- Th e UNPFA similarly contends that work on gender equality and violence against women would benefi t from the support and involvement of males since “men themselves are increasingly challenging notions of “masculinity” that restrict their humanity, limit their participation in the lives of their children, and put themselves and their partners at risk” (2005:5).
- Similarly, Kenneth Clatterbaugh says that the terms masculinity and hegemonic masculinity “carry a lot of historical baggage, which unless great care is exercised in their use, leads to confusion and careless thinking” (1998: 25).
- Interestingly, this occurs among critical citizens as well.
- But there are also crucial variations within the male group and amongst diff erent forms of masculinities in Africa.
Age and African Manhood
- Th e main diff erence is that in this article the self, or the experiencing or practicing male, is considered as simultaneously located within, and better understood from, both the registers of the psychological and the political.
- Since maleness and masculinity are diff erent things it makes sense that males have to engage in certain activities, learn to speak in particular ways, avoid certain topics and occupy a certain station in society to be regarded as successfully masculine.
- In some countries, the population under 15 years is as high as 47% and 50%, Angola and Uganda being cases in point.
Africa as a whole 42 3 924
- Th e predominance of young people might suggest that the young – both young women and men – should have a voice in how their continent is governed.
- And while age qualifi es one for certain rights, there is more to the domination of the older members of a society over younger members.
- Of course, a similar lesson is observable in the way settler minorities and small populations of whites in many African countries yoked together diff erent forms of power, including violence legitimized in law, to oppress large numbers of Africans and other populations in those countries.
Country Year Unemployment rate (%) Working age
- Some of these factors are internal to countries and others are external (AUC, 2006).
- External factors include the high indebtedness of some countries, unfavourable terms of trade with rich countries, unfair pricing of raw materials that most African economies depend on, and inaccessible markets of the rich countries.
- While there may still be men who are informed by an ethic of working hard for the sake of work, many men will work so that they can climb the economic value ladder.
Conclusion
- Masculinities, the article sought to show, is better viewed as produced at both the social and psychological levels, and that viewed thus, male experiences and practices disperse and internally fragment the notion of African masculinity.
- Th e paper has suggested that more changes to the gendered African worlds and masculinity are possible if interventions into male lives observe the intersections between, for instance, the social-psychological experience of being an African male and the experience of being young or unemployed.
- Such intersections reveal how male groups are diverse and African masculinities dispersed, heterogeneous and fl uid.
- And, as consequence of this recognition of the fragmented, diverse and changing character of African masculinities, the authors are able to mount better interventions against ruling ideas of being a man or boy, including interventions against the daily wars around gender.
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Cites background from "Analysing Males in Africa: Certain ..."
...African masculinity is problematized through the concept of Africa as a historical and a geopolitical space (Ouzgane and Morrell 2007, Ratele 2008)....
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Frequently Asked Questions (15)
Q2. What are the realities of African men?
In many African countries, the realities are that weak economies, high levels of unemployment, and deep inequalities mean that criminal economic activity, including pervasive corruption, become part of the experiences and practices of men who feel disabled from achieving successful manhood by their lack of good employment prospects.
Q3. What is the definition of hegemonic masculinity?
Hegemonic masculinity is, in other words, a mesh of social practices productive of gender-based hierarchies, including violence that supports these hierarchies; that is, the unequal relations between females and males as groups.
Q4. What is the significance of age and seniority in relation to manliness?
Amongst the interesting implications about age and seniority in relation to manliness is that in the pre-colonial period or outside of colonial reach, post-menopausal females and females who “occupied male stools or chiefl y offi ces”, as Miescher has observed in his study in southern Ghana’s Akan societies, could become “ritual men”, “embodying a form of “female masculinity,” attaining social positions reserved for men”.
Q5. What is the interesting aspect of this relationship?
Th e most interesting aspect of this relationship is that one part contributing to male domination is a relatively active achievement (masculinity) while the other (age) is passive.
Q6. What is the conclusion the authors can draw from reading manhood together with age?
Th e conclusion the authors can draw from reading manhood together with age is how a version of masculinity a particular African male might get to support could be based on fabrication as much as on actual socio-economic and political facts.
Q7. What is the importance of dispelling the stereotype of masculinity?
Important as it is to challenge men with guns, or the pressures males are subjected to or subject themselves to in respect to their bodies, behaviours or habits, it is as vital to dispel this stereotype of masculinity.
Q8. What is the main argument that men and women are the gatekeepers for change?
to reach that world where females and males are treated without prejudice in all areas of all life aff ecting them, studies of men and masculinities argue that change among males has to happen.
Q9. What is the definition of gendered masculinity?
One of the tools that have been used to analyse such violence and other male practices is that of “hegemonic masculinity,” the infl uence of which within studies of gendered male lives and power is well-established.
Q10. Why do older males rule the world?
In short, the domination of countries by a minority of older males is due to their active structuring of society in their own favour (see Barker and Ricardo, 2005).
Q11. Why are some routes to success closed to some men?
owing to the fact that some of the routes towards success may be closed to some men, either because of widespread joblessness, lack of training or education, war, racially or ethnically biased policies, or changes in industry, extra-legal means to achieve successful man-hood are not excluded.
Q12. What is the meaning of gender wars?
In several African societies, traumatic acts of violence against women and girls go on daily – such that they may be referred to as part of undeclared yet public gender wars.
Q13. What is the troubling question that confronts researchers of male lives?
It is on this ground where one of the most troubling questions confronts researchers of male lives: how to analyse males who are powerless in relation to other males but at the same time members of a powerful gender group in relation to females.
Q14. What is the general point to underline as far as masculinity is concerned?
Th e general point to underline as far as masculinity is concerned is that age positions males in specifi c bio-psycho-cultural ways and hence diff erentiates within and between genders.
Q15. What is the main aim of the diff erent studies on African boys and men?
the principal aim that ties the diff erent studies under the eclectic framework of critical studies on African boys and men is to understand the gender of male lives and the impact of diff erent masculinities on males and females (e.g., Agenda, 1998; Gibson & Hardan, 2005; Morrell, 2001; Shefer, Ratele, Strebel, Shabalala & Buikema, 2007).