1.2 Preliminary Literature Review
1.2.2 Studying Masculinity or Masculinities?
According to Connell (2012:5), studies of masculinity crystallised in the 1980s as a research field. However, Robert Morrell and Lahoucine Ouzgane (2005) have observed that the subject of masculinities in Africa remained neglected. This assertion has changed with time mainly because men and masculinity as a critical field of research in Africa has
continued to have an increased interest in the past decade.13 In their research, Lisa Lindsay and Stephan Miescher (2003:2) have argued that this new field has mainly theorised masculinity by drawing on studies from Australia, Europe, and North America with little attention paid to the rich variety of gendered practices in Africa.
The literature indicates that very few scholars are actually seriously working on masculinities as an area of research in Africa. Morrell’s work on masculinity to a wide large extent remains seminal (See Morrell 2001a; 2001b); Morrell and Ouzgane (2005).
Other publications that have made considerable contributions in this area of scholarship include: Lindsay and Miescher (2003)—whose edited volume focuses on sub-Saharan African history; Linda Richter and Robert Morrell (eds.) (2006) and Catherine Cole et al.
(2007). Although most of these works continue to engage the conversations which began with western scholarship, their unique contribution can be seen in their attempts to address changes that have taken place in male gender identities in the contemporary African contexts. However, research on masculinity from religious and theological perspectives are still scant.
Attempts to engage debates on issues of masculinity in Africa and South(ern) Africa in particular have been evident at various occasions. First, from 2 to 4 July 1997 a Colloquium titled ‘Masculinities in Southern Africa’ was held at the University of Natal, Durban.14 Second, The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) focused on masculinities as its theme for the 2005 Gender Institute. The institute’s emphasis was more on a close investigation of the changes that take place within the content and contexts of masculinities. To achieve its purpose, the institute engaged discussions around the contemporary patterns of the projection of masculinity, the factors and trends that shape masculine behaviour in Africa, the modes by which these masculinities express themselves in different spheres, and the implications of contemporary masculinities (see CODESRIA 2009:2). It is therefore important to take
13 According to Ouzgane and Morrell (2005:4), masculinities as an area of research are growing and are diversified with scholarship in Africa mainly coming from Southern Africa. Insisting that academic research on men in Africa is still in its infancy Saheed Aderinto (2008:142) has shown that South African has predominantly taken the lead in this area. The major concern that Aderinto highlights is the geographically relative nature of research and publication in this area (see also van Klinken 2011b).
14 This was organised by Robert Morrell on discussions revolving around raising key issues and suggesting new ways of thinking about South African history in relation to masculinity (see report published in South African Historical Journal 1997, vol. 37 no. 1, 167-172). Arguably, what made this Colloquium unique was the need to interrogate categories of gender and examine the historical construction of gender identities and relations (Morrell 1997:168). Some of the twenty-nine, most historical papers which were presented in the Colloquium were also published in the Journal of Southern African Studies, 1998, vol. 24 no. 4.
a thorough look at the kind of changes that brought emphasis on men and masculinity in the context of Southern Africa.
As Langa (2012:29) argues in relation to new social science research, there is no universal blueprint of masculinity that is found across all cultures. Masculinity differs in terms of class, race, ethnicity, and culture. For this reason, scholars agree that there is no uniform masculinity but a multiplicity of masculinities. It is therefore more acceptable to employ the term ‘masculinities’ to match the cultural constructions and expressions of masculinity15 (see Connell 1995, Morrell 2001a). In South Africa for example, there cannot be one, typical South African masculinity but rather different masculinities.
It is therefore in order to use the plural form of masculinities while speaking about the varied forms that constructs of masculinity takes even within Charismatic, Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity from a religious perspective. Beynon (2002:2) captures this idea well, insisting that men are not born with masculinity as part of their genetic make- up; rather it is something into which they are acculturated and which is composed of social codes of behaviour that men learn to reproduce in culturally appropriate ways. He further contends that indeed masculinity can never be considered apart from culture: on the contrary, it is the child of culture, shaped and experienced differently at different times in different circumstances in different places by individuals and groups. Equally, I would argue, that masculinities also cannot be seen apart from religious beliefs and traditions, even though this aspect is sometimes ignored in certain definitions. For example, Whitehead and Barrett in attempting to define masculinities, assert:
The nearest that we can get to an ‘answer’ is to state that masculinities are those behaviours, languages and practices, existing in specific cultural and organisational locations, which are commonly associated with males and thus culturally defined as not feminine. So, masculinities exist as both a positive, inasmuch as they offer some means of identity signification for males, and as a negative, inasmuch as they are not the ‘other’
(feminine)(2001:15)
From the preceding literature review it becomes apparent that most literature focusing on men and masculinity studies in South(ern) Africa are from a social and historical
15 Since masculinity is not monolithic not all men have the same form of masculinity but a number of masculinities exist along a wide spectrum. Representations of masculinity come to existence as men act.
These are actively produced, using the resources and strategies available in a given social setting.
perspective and these rarely engage with issues of religion (and theology) on constructions of masculinities. However, Ezra Chitando and Sophie Chirongoma (2008);
Adriaan van Klinken (2011a); Sarojini Nadar (2009) and Rubeena Partab (2012) as scholars in the field of religion and masculinity in Southern Africa have highlighted the fact that religion is a major force that should relate to the construction of masculinities across African cultures. They have also noted the role that religion plays in transforming masculinities (See also Owino 2010), and hence there is an emerging field of studies that is fast growing in the area of religion and theology with regard to, masculinities. This thesis is a contribution to this growing body of literature