Of boys and men: masculinity and gender in Southern African studies

Abstract

Southern African historiography has become increasingly gender‐sensitive in the last decade. Primarily as a result of the impact of feminism in the world of work and in universities, research on women has burgeoned. The inclusion of women in the study of the past and the recognition of their agency has filled an important lacuna but also has made evident the corresponding gap in knowledge about men. The dominance of men in the public record has obscured the fact that little is known about masculinity. Men have generally been treated in essentialist terms. The socially constructed nature of masculinity is widely acknowledged and it is this insight that needs to be applied to a study of the region's history. This article introduces readers to the inter‐disciplinary work on masculinity, reviews how research on gender in South Africa has handled issues of men and masculinity and then suggests how insights taken from Men's Studies might help to broaden gender analysis and enrich the study of the South African past. In this article, a range of masculinities is identified. Colonialism created new and transformed existing masculinities. Race and class featured prominently in the configuration of these masculinities. Under colonialism positions of domination and subordination were created along the lines of race, bequeathing to the region the language of white men and black ‘boys’. The particular trajectory of colonialism ended the political independence of the indigenous polities and destroyed their economic independence but the success of the defeated polities in retaining possession of land and of the policies of segregation and apartheid meant that key African institutions survived. These were the basis for an African masculinity that in certain geographical and social areas disputed hegemony with white masculinities.