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Is masculinity the inevitable consequence of being male? Scholars and journalists report that in Africa today masculinity is widely in distress, with a growing proportion of young men struggling to gain access to the social and material means needed to marry, found families, and secure recognition as adult men. Yet patriarchal authority persists in many parts of the continent, along with alarming claims of an increase in “rogue,” “toxic,” and hyper-masculinities associated with gender-based violence, crime, and militarism. In order to comprehend this paradoxical picture, we must push past populist stereotypes to examine the interplay of gender, culture, and political economy that underlies the lives of men – and women – in Africa today. Masculinity is in much dispute in the contemporary world. While concepts of manhood have always existed, the current preoccupation with masculinity dates to the 1990s, when the meaning of maleness appears to have become the object of heightened scrutiny.  An early inkling of what was at stake was wryly captured in the 1997 movie The Full Monty. Modest in everything but its subject matter, the film’s unusual popularity was evidence that it struck a cultural nerve. The story centered on a group of steel workers in Thatcherite […]