The South African man’s reputation is in crisis: he is held responsible for one of the world’s highest rape rates; he perpetrates domestic violence; and now experts tell us he is a womaniser who prefers condomless sex and is driving the HIV/Aids epidemic.
Researchers grappling with what has, and is, framing this identity have identified economic circumstances, the new political order and HIV/Aids as important factors.
According to Mark Hunter, a doctoral student from the University of California, Berkeley, the evolution of the Zulu concept of isoka is an indicator of how masculinity has changed.
In the early 1900s the word was associated with the coming of sexual age. Generally, an isoka had two or three girlfriends, with whom he often practised thigh sex (ukusoma), said Hunter, who has been conducting research in Mandeni in KwaZulu-Natal.
This was seen as a youthful phase and the man was expected to marry one of his girlfriends. A playboy who didn’t marry was denigrated as isoka lamanyala (dirty), or a man who had gone too far.
But by the end of the 20th century rising unemployment and the high price of ilobolo (bride payment) made marriage unaffordable for many men. Hunter said all but one of the men older than 60 that he interviewed were married, whereas virtually none of those under 35 were.
With few prospects of marriage, isoka manhood was now characterised simply by having penetrative sex with multiple partners.
But, said Hunter, the association between successful manhood and many partners is being challenged by Aids — isoka is again being associated with dirt and irresponsibility.
‘Unlike funerals, weddings in Sumdumbili are a rare event. Day by day, funeral by funeral, Aids bears harder down on the isoka masculinity,” said Hunter.
‘Indeed, it is at the many funerals, as mourners walk around the coffin, taking a shocking glance at the deceased’s diminutive body, where the contradictions of isoka are most tragically played out. Consequently, men and masculinity are under scrutiny.”
While Aids may be curbing sexual activity in Mandeni, many residents of Bushbuckridge believe that democracy has led to the escalation of rape in their area.
In interviews with Isak Niehaus of the University of Pretoria, residents argued that the increase in rape could be blamed on a loss of power by the apartheid regime, chiefs and parents, all of whom meted out harsh punishments for transgressions in the past.
Niehaus found no evidence that the collapse of the apartheid regime was to blame for an increase in rape as ‘the white government and chiefs did not successfully police the sexuality of villagers” and that, ‘in the contemporary period, prison sentences for rape actually became more severe”.
But he said comments about the collapse of the old order could be metaphors for ‘the collapse of domestic order”, as characterised by the fragmentation of extended families and a loss of male power, partly as a result of economic hardship.
In examining the circumstances of 45 rapes Niehaus concluded, ‘the clear majority of rapists were disadvantaged men who raped women to mimic masculine domi- nation. They were sexually inexperienced youngsters, unemployed men who failed at being providers and senior men who perceived their dominant position within the household as being under threat.”
Seventeen of the rapes were by gangs, and Niehaus concluded that the motives were ‘male bonding and sexual socialisation”.
While Bushbuckridge residents may blame the rise in rape on democracy, Wits University’s Liz Walker has found that the post-1994 political changes have had a positive impact on a small group of men in Alexandra township.
Faced with a sense of crisis over their role as men, they had been inspired to join an organisation called Men For Change and to try to find a new role for themselves.
The 1996 Constitution, and the policies and laws that followed it, introduced a ‘constitutional sexuality” that promotes gender equality, recognises gays and lesbians and has allowed citizens access to previously unavailable books, films and magazines and adult sex shops, said Walker.
But this ‘very liberal version of constitutional sexuality does not speak to many masculinities of the past” that are ‘steeped in violence and authoritarianism”.
Instead, it promotes the ideal man as one ‘who is non-violent, a good father and husband, employed and able to provide for his family”, said Walker.
While the ‘old masculinity” was destabilised, men were unsure about how to construct a new one, or to relate to women as equals.
‘You know, the biggest problem facing men today is women,” Tumi (28) told Walker. ‘Women are … much more self-sufficient. They don’t need us men to survive.”
Among the 17 men interviewed, Walker said one common feature was the violence they had witnessed or experienced while growing up.
But the men attracted to Men For Change wanted a different destiny and were often motivated by wanting to be good fathers to their children.
‘Confusion and uncertainty around the nature of masculinity and male sexuality, and the expectations men have of themselves, each other and women are contested and in crisis, giving rise to new notions of manhood,” concluded Walker.
Time will tell whether these new notions of manhood — mitigated by Aids, gender equality and economic hardship — will enable South African men to relate to women as equals.
The research referred to was presented at the recent Sex and Secrecy Conference at Wits University.
Kerry Cullinan is a reporter at Health-e news service.