Men behaving differently: South African men since 1994

225

163

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.

Section: Multiple-partners In the Era Of Democracy And Unemploymentmentioning

confidence: 96%

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

Hunter

2005

225

163

“…There has been considerable research carried out highlighting some of the ways in which IPV manifests in different social settings, the socio-cultural and economic factors that underpin its occurrence and the extent to which its various forms are accepted (e.g. Hunter 2005;Jewkes, Levin & PennKekana 2002;Walker 2005;Wojcicki 2002;Wood and Jewkes 2001;Wood, Lambert and Jewkes 2007;Wood, Maforah and Jewkes 1998).…”

Section: Understanding Ipvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives on intimate partner violence in Swaziland amongst 18–29-year-old men undergoing medical circumcision

Brear

Bessarab

2012

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is perceived as a major contributor to HIV transmission in Swaziland. This exploratory study aimed to develop a culturally-specific understanding of men's perspectives of IPV. Focus group methods were used to gather information from 45 young urban Swazi men who had undergone medical male circumcision. A thematic analysis was conducted focussing on the manifestations of IPV and socio-cultural and economic factors which underpin, circumstances which trigger and social responses to IPV. The study identified numerous forms of economic, physical, emotional and sexual abuse that study participants perceived men used to control women in Swaziland. Many of these directly increased a woman's risk of HIV infection, including knowingly infecting a woman with HIV and intentionally impregnating a woman, a practice that has not previously been highlighted in the literature. Aspects of Swazi culture that may facilitate these particular forms of abuse are discussed. This study highlights the need for the gender issues which underpin IPV to be addressed in HIV prevention in Swaziland and for the development of an informed understanding of how and why IPV occurs in the Swazi context.

“…Since the first democratic elections in 1994, debate around masculinity has intensified. In particular, it has been argued that the re-definition of gender and the liberalization of sexuality entailed by the democratic transition have posed serious challenges to orthodox, mainly authoritarian notions of masculinity, leaving many men with a disempowering sense of irrelevance in the domestic sphere (Walker 2003, Morrell 2001. Posel (2004) has examined the intense visibility and politicization of sexuality since the advent of democracy, arguing that as a consequence of the Bill of Rights, sexual violence has become a very public matter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing group rape in post‐apartheid South Africa

Wood

2005

Collective male sexual violence is part of a continuum of sexual coercion in South Africa. This paper is based on long-term ethnographic work in an urban township in the former Transkei region. Drawing on intensive participant observation and interviews with young men in particular, it attempts to make sense of emergent narratives relating to streamlining, a local term for a not uncommon form of collective sexual coercion involving a group of male friends and one or more women. The paper begins with an overview of existing anthropological literature on collective male sexual violence, going onto elaborate the different scenarios associated with group sexual violence in the fieldsite. It seeks to provide a multi-layered contextualization of the phenomenon by considering prevailing gender discourses, subcultural issues pertaining to the urban tsotsi phenomenon, the rural practice of ukuthwala (bride capture), young working-class Africans' experiences of marginalization, and the complex links between political economy and violence in this setting.