‘So Kuoↄ Kye Bϵ Yi’: disrupting constructions of masculinities among the Dagaaba of Northwestern Ghana

ABSTRACT

In this article, our aim is to present an African-centered framework on how researchers interested in critical studies on African men and masculinities might think through and think from Africa in ways that might privilege a more nuanced reading and examining of gendered subjectivities in Africa. Drawing on interviews with young men in northwestern Ghana, this article offers an understanding of how young Dagaaba men and their masculinities could be better understood in relation to an emerging neoliberal rural culture. Young men in this study acknowledge the possibility of negotiating expressions of masculinities which are more progressive, while simultaneously remaining heavily invested in retaining certain behaviors, practices, and patriarchal structures which legitimize the currency of traditionally hegemonic masculinities. The article concludes that attempts seeking to deconstruct hegemonic masculinities must, first and foremost, appreciate the shifts and complexities of masculinities and the discursive materiality of acts of violence over time and space.

KEYWORDS:

• Hegemony
• masculinity
• intimate partner violence
• Ghana
• Dagaaba

Acknowledgements

Funding for this study was supported by the Social Science Research Council’s Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Fellowship, with funds provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York. However, the funder did not contribute to the design, data collection, analysis and write of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was supported by the Social Science Research Council’s Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Fellowship, with funds provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York. However, the funder did not contribute to the design, data collection, analysis and write of this manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Isaac Dery

Isaac Dery is a postdoctoral researcher with the Institute for Social and Health Sciences at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Isaac’s research work explores the constructions, meanings, and negotiations of masculinities. Grounded in the social production of masculinities and femininities, Isaac’s work seeks to develop and promote a culture of resistance against social injustices, especially gender, violence, and sexuality. His research interests also include gender and health, fatherhood, and marriage in Africa. He has published in leading journals such as the Social Science and Medicine, Reproductive Health.

Agnes Atia Apusigah

Agnes Atia Apusigah, PhD., is a gender researcher at the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. She is the dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences where she coordinates gender and curriculum development courses. Her research interests focus on gender, Indigenous Knowledge, Citizenship, and Cultural sociology.