Search

In our field sites and clinical practice in East Africa, we regularly encounter men who have become overwhelmed by "thinking too many thoughts" and "gone crazy from confusion," brought about by the problems of life created by deepening social, economic and political precarity. Across diverse settings, many African men continue to be enmeshed in social and material obligations and expectations that position them as economic consumers and providers for those they care for and love. When these gendered obligations, expectations and fantasies are left unfulfilled, this sense of failure can be embodied to produce particular kinds of health effects. Namely, men may become plagued by troublesome and confusing thoughts, leading them in some cases to "give up on" (as our research subjects put it) pursuing work and education, to become immersed in problematic drug and alcohol use, and even to take their own lives. While these afflictions can be glossed using the language of depression, anxiety, addiction and suicide, such medicalizing frames may obscure more nuanced social, structural and affective diagnoses of what is happening to men across Africa and globally. Anthropology provides us with alternative frames through which to understand how psychological wounds are made-and healed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Psychosocial support groups offer an important space for people living with HIV to pursue greater wellbeing as they learn how to accept and live with their HIV status. They are critical for the cultivation of responsible and adherent patients. Occasionally, support groups provide spaces where members are encouraged to discuss sexual struggles related to being HIV-positive, including sexual performance issues, sexual relationships, fertility desires and communicating with sexual partners. This paper examines an HIV-positive men's sex therapy support group at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, where HIV-positive men access information about HIV and treatment, while getting tips on restoring sexual functioning and improving sexual gratification from medical experts, peer counsellors and fellow group members. In the group setting, members worked to rediscover and reconstruct masculinity under the guidance of a range of experts, while focusing on regaining or improving sexual prowess.

Facing an ever-changing political-economic landscape marked by inequality, joblessness, and xenophobia, migrants in inner city Johannesburg are pushed towards the economic margins, or the 'corner' of life. In this precarious place, structural and everyday violence shape the daily lives and practices of men from various parts of Africa. This article examines how such men work to live up to self and societal expectations of masculinities while attempting to adjust to the socio-economic realities they face. Departing from the crisis in masculinity narrative, we highlight the multiple, creative ways that men navigate precarity. Our arguments are based on an ethnographic study of masculinities and violence, conducted from June 2017 to February 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Drawing on the stories of two migrant men and more broadly from observations undertaken at Uncle Kofi's Corner, a street corner hangout and our main ethnographic site, we show how participants mapped urban space to produce enclaved masculinities. In these enclaves, specific scripts on how to be a man were (re)constructed resulting in multiple and unstable masculinities in a perpetual state of becoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, heteronormative presumptions relating to masculinity dictate that men should be engaged in or actively pursuing heterosexual relationships. For many gay men, fears of social rejection, stigma, and legal repercussion combine to prevent them from being open about their sexuality. This article examines social and legal pressures experienced by gay men in Dar es Salaam and the ways they navigate their daily lives to avoid detection and act in instances where they fail to adhere to ascribed norms of masculinity. Our arguments draw on one year of ethnographic research among gay men aged 18 years and above in Dar es Salaam in 2017. Our findings show that gay men are under constant pressure to meet expectations such as having female sexual partners, getting married, and having children, as well as to conform with masculine body styling norms. In trying to navigate between masculine expectations of society and the desire to live freely as men who desire other men, they resort to a range of temporal, spatial and bodily tactics to conceal homosexual practices and identities from family and neighbors. These techniques include socializing, dating, and sometimes marrying women in response to family and societal pressure. They also dress in prescribed ways to conform to heteronormative standards, carefully attending to space and time to identify safe places for being gay, and utilizing mobile phones and social media to build communities of support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with an HIV prevalence of 31% among 18- to 49-year-olds, Swaziland developed a male circumcision policy in 2009, following compelling scientific evidence from three randomised controlled trials. Utilising United States Agency for International Development funds, the state set out to circumcise 80% of adult men in 2011. Only 8667 of the targeted 150,000 men were circumcised during the campaign. This paper presents findings from a 2012 to 2013 in-depth qualitative study among Swazi men. Methods included 13 focus group discussions, 20 in-depth interviews, 16 informal interviews and participant observation. We argue that the campaign's failure can be partly explained by the fact that circumcision was perceived as a threat to Swazi masculinities, a factor hardly considered in the planning of the intervention. Results show that men believed circumcision resulted in reduced penis sensitivity, reduced sexual pleasure and adverse events such as possible mistakes during surgery and post-operative complications that could have negative effects on their sexual lives. Given the conflicting state of scientific data about the effects of circumcision on sexuality or sexual pleasure, this study addresses important lacunae, while also demonstrating the need for more research into the relationship between sexuality, masculinity and health interventions seeking to involve men. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]