Becoming cornered: Migration, masculinities and marginalisation in inner-city Johannesburg

This anthropological study focuses on the transformations of gender dynamics in the context of migration and the implications these have for masculinity scholarship in South Africa. Using a case study of migrant men, who found themselves pushed to the margins of the economy and society or the ‘corner of life’, as they called it, I examine how various forms of marginalisation intersect with normative ideas of masculinities. This cornered space was characterised by violence and precarity that undermined their roles and identities as men. Contrary to studies that argue that men with limited options turn to violence to assert themselves, so as to align with hegemonic masculinities, the men in this study did not view hegemonic masculinity as fixed. Failure to live up to hegemonic standards led them to redefine masculinities to match their lived experiences. Drawing from dominant tropes of masculinities, they negotiated and reformulated their own standards and scripts, which recognised their own varied forms of capital. Observing the varied ways that my study participants navigated and negotiated their precarious lived realities, a process they termed ‘kukiya kiya’ – meaning trying various keys to open doors and seize opportunities – I have come to understand masculinities as fluid and plural by definition, consisting of a set of ideas, behaviours and practices resulting in unstable subject positions in the process of being and becoming. I therefore, propose looking at masculinities not as a structure, as implied by the term ‘hegemony’, but as an open-ended space (corner) that is under constant construction.