Tag Archives: Southern Africa

Christopher Isike, “What Do Men Think? The Role of Cultural (Mis)Conceptions in Perpetuating Male Violence Against Women in Neocolonial Africa”

In Jane Freedman, ed., Engaging Men in the Fight Against Gender Violence: Case Studies From Africa

A bit of a problem (but typical in the literature) with trying to frame the question of the research as being about both Africa as a whole and about highly particular, local frames of reference, with most evidence being drawn out of the latter. But it really seems tricky–the notion that precolonial masculinities across the continent naturally or organically belong in the same field of comparison is an issue.

Nationalist framing of the problem: is violent masculinity deployed against women a result of precolonial culture or imperialism? The answer is also largely articulated through a nationalist, state-controlled prism, e.g., re-education through both formal curricula and the creation of better exemplary models in cultural and social life. Shows the enormous faith that a certain kind of nationalist critique has in the power of the state to remake civil society, and very little interest in thinking about civil society in any other sense or terms.

Very much about the dominance of the image; socioeconomic structures around gender such as migrancy (precolonial, colonial and postcolonial) don’t really enter the analysis much.