“The Boy Has to Be a Man in Order for Life to Start”: AmaXhosa, Black Boyhood Studies, and the Anthropology of Boyhoods

ABSTRACT

Contemporary and historically focused social science studies of amaXhosa (Xhosa) men have focused predominantly on Xhosa men attaining manhood through ritualised initiation (ulwaluko) and heterosexual homemaking (ukwakha umzi). These studies have left critical knowledge gaps of the pre-initiation lives of Xhosa men throughout the lifecycle, along with processes of socialisation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork spanning over a year (2013–2014) conducted in rural and peri-urban Peddie in the Eastern Cape, my ethnography shows the necessity of examining the formation of Xhosa masculinities prior to ulwaluko. My research illustrates the importance of boyhood kwaXhosa. I argue that Xhosa masculinities are viable long before initiation and that it is not in manhood that “life” starts for men as one of my research interlocutors, Mthuthu, alluded. My ethnography necessarily challenges recent theorisations and conceptualisations of Xhosa masculinities as well as older canonical writings as far as they place primacy on the initiated Xhosa male phallus in the attainment of masculinity. I argue for scholarly consideration of the nuances and complexities of being a boy. Although there is a developing corpus of work from Black Boyhood studies, I note the limitations of this field especially for its rootedness in the North American Black boyhood experiences that do not have the cultural context of ulwaluko. Ultimately, I argue for an Anthropology of Boyhoods. Through concentrated effort on boyhood, in the study of masculinities, ultimately we can attain more contextual, varied and multifaceted experiences of how men experience masculinity across the life course.

KEYWORDS:

• amaXhosa
• boyhood
• socialization
• Black Boyhood Studies
• the Anthropology of Boyhoods

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Sakhumzi Mfecane and Dr Mpumi Zungu for comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would like to acknowledge colleagues in the Working Group on African Masculinities for helpful comments on earlier presentation of this paper. Lastly, I thank the anonymous reviewers and the members of The Editorial Collective at the South African Review of Sociology. All errors remain my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The research made use of various anthropological research techniques including participant observation, informal and semi-structured interviews as well as life histories among others. In this paper, I focus principally on data collected through life histories, immersion as well as semi-structured interviews.

2 It is worth noting that in arguing for the consideration of Black boyhood, and amaXhosa boyhood specifically, is not intended to imply boyhood is formed in isolation from girlhood, or that Black girls and amaXhosa girls are not marginalised in literature and scholarship. In this particular context, my research only allows me to speak, with ethnography, to the particularised experience of Black amaXhosa boyhoods.

3 In Peddie, and much of the Eastern Cape, it is not uncommon among amaXhosa that people refer to someone, particularly a man, endearingly through their surname. In this instance with Xola, the surname not only identified the person, but further the house and homestead that the person hails from.

4 Omama translates to “mothers”, and in this instance Xola is using “Omama” to show the seniority of the women he was listening to, and not necessarily reflecting motherhood status of the women.