The idea of African men
Dealing with the cultural contradictions of sex in academia and in Kenya
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15098595 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Spronk (0000-0002-5207-711X, Amsterdam University College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 504-517 |
| Publication date | 2014-05-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13691058.2014.889755 |
| PMID | 24654790 |
| OpenAlex | W2126806241 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 29 |
In this paper, I reflect on the notion of 'African men' as it is employed in global health scholarship and disentangle the way the idea is used as a generative concept. I explore how this notion circulates and gets modified, adapted and reproduced by scholars, on the one hand, and by various groups of men in Africa, on the other. I argue that the use of the idea of African men as an a priori category in scholarly imagination and practice presents us with stereotypes that impede much research. I then briefly connect with what has been analysed as the hegemonic discourse on Africa as the paradigm of difference, and the history of local modes of self-presentation as Africans. In Kenya, among both men and women, the use of the phrase African men as a natural category of sexual agents has been used to explain or justify men's multiple sexual relations. Yet if we look more closely at men's experiences, it becomes clear how men are caught up in conflicting discourses of masculinity. I conclude that we need to analyse gender as a performative quality that is both constructed and meaningful
Epistemology · Hegemonic masculinity · Hegemony · Linguistics · Masculinity · Natural (archaeology · Performative utterance · Phrase · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · History · Psychology · Sex work and related issues
Transcontinental polygyny, migration and hegemonic masculinity in Guinea‐Bissau and the Gambia
Performances of Injustice
Portraying fathers
Gender role strain and the precarious manhood of sexual minority Kenyan men
I am African, iko nini”
A case of cruel optimism
Wyglądać na emigranta. Gra o nowoczesność i konstruowanie męskości w Gwinei Bissau
Communities’ perceptions of factors contributing to child sexual abuse vulnerability in Kenya
Patriarchal Anxieties and Masculine Sexual Privilege in Contemporary Urban Mali
Constructing the 'respectable' client and the 'good' researcher
Conflicting discourses of church youths on masculinity and sexuality in the context of HIV in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Plant use and perceptions in the context of sexual health among people of Congolese descent in Belgium
Only one Mayweather
Pentecostal pastorhood as calling and career
Ethnicizing sexuality
African Masculinities
The Idea of Africa
Confronting the “Sugar Daddy” Stereotype
Ambiguous Pleasures
Love in Africa
Dismantling reified African culture through localised homosexualities in Uganda
Putting sex on the table
Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell
Critique of ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ in human rights discourse
Disempowerment of Men in Rural and Urban East Africa
Sex in Development
Male and female circumcision in Africa from a regional to a specific Nigerian examination
Aids as a paradox of manhood and development in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Ethical dilemmas of social science research on Aids and orphanhood in Western Kenya
Racial Metaphors
Sex, Sexuality and Negotiating Africanness in Nairobi
African Sex is Dangerous!' Renegotiating 'Ritual Sex' in Contemporary Masaka District
The power of sex
Obverse Denominations
African Modes of Self-Writing
Male Promiscuity
Post-Colonial Histories of Sexuality
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,25 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |