Cultural politics and masculinities: Multiple‐partners in historical perspective in KwaZulu‐Natal

Abstract

Drawing from ethnographic, archival and secondary research, this article examines multiple-sexual partners in historical perspective in KwaZulu-Natal, a South Africa province where one in three people are thought to be HIV positive. Research on masculinities, multiple-partners, and AIDS has been predominantly directed towards the present day. This paper stresses the importance of unraveling the antecedents of contemporary masculinities particularly the gendered cultural politics through which they have been produced. Arguing against dominant conceptions of African masculinity as being innate or static, it charts the rise and fall of the isoka, the Zulu man with multiple-sexual partners, over the last century. Showing how the isoka developed through changing conditions occasioned by capitalism, migrant labour and Christianity, it contends that an important turning point took place from the 1970s when high unemployment threatened previous expressions of manliness, notably marriage, setting up an independent household and becoming umnumzana (a household head). The high value placed on men seeking multiple-partners increasingly filled the void left by men's inability to become men through previous means. Turning to the contemporary period, the article argues that, shaken by the huge AIDS deaths, men are betraying increasing doubts about the isoka masculinity.

Personal support and expressions of care for pregnant women in Soweto, South Africa

“…Yet while many of the women reported a need to have their partner show care by providing for them (housing, cash), they also emphasised their desire for emotional care, for their partner to show his affection for them, including his involvement in and implied commitment to the pregnancy, through his physical presence as much as his financial support. Furthermore, while women spoke of dominant representations of African men’s sexuality in relation to multiple partnerships [47,49,50,52], they complied primarily because they felt that this would reduce their risk of being abandoned.…”

Beyond Sugar Daddies: Intergenerational Sex and AIDS in Urban Zimbabwe

“…At the same time, older men's multiple and concurrent sexual relationships are hypothesized to create dense sexual networks that fuel HIV transmission [11][12][13]. The risk inherent in these sexual networks may be heightened by age gaps between partners when younger women have relationships with older men who are more likely to be HIV infected than younger men [3,5,10,14,15].…”

When the group encourages extramarital sex

“…This measure referred to the possession of cash instead of the ownership of goods or properties. Such an indicator is interesting, as several studies have highlighted the role of monetary and nonmonetary transfers, such as gifts in informal sexual relationships in sub-Saharan societies (Hunter 2005;Mishra et al 2007;Bingenheimer 2010). Those married men who spent more on personal purchases were assumed to have had greater spending capacity, and to have been better able to afford to having extramarital sexual partners.…”

“…Numerous qualitative studies have emphasized that certain social and institutional factors, such as work-related migration, the social meaning of masculinity and sexuality, and peer pressure (Parikh 2007;Smith 2007;Hunter 2010), must be taken into account when examining the question of why men engage in extramarital relationships. On the other hand, the presence of contradictory moralities, the social norm of fidelity, and the AIDS threat are believed to discourage people from having extramarital sexual partners (Hunter 2005;Smith, 2007). Some quantitative studies have, in turn, measured the effect of interpersonal communication and social networks on issues related to HIV preventive behavior, such as risk perception and spousal communication about AIDS (Helleringer and Kohler 2005;Smith and Watkins 2005;Kohler, Behrman, and Watkins 2007).…”