Lovers not fighters: Afropolitan masculinity in two South African romcoms

Abstract

This paper considers two South African romantic comedies, Tell Me Sweet Something (Akin Omotoso, 2015) and Happiness is a Four-Letter Word (Thabang Moleya, 2016). Both are set in a wealthy, sophisticated version of Johannesburg and feature black casts that include high profile celebrities. Both emphasize versions of black South African masculinity that deviate from stereotyped depictions of black men as workers, warriors, patriarchs and/or enactors of violence. These films center on an aspirational iteration of black manhood that prioritizes consumption, class and social status. I discuss their representations of the various male characters – Nat in Sweet Something and Thomas, Chris, Bheki, Bongani and Leo in Happiness – including their bodily performances, embeddedness (or lack of) in South African cultural forms and modes of dress and speech. Drawing on ideas about Afropolitanism, I argue that the films update cinematic stereotypes of masculinity, particularly the damaging association of black men and violence. This apparently progressive move is, however, ambivalent, as it privileges a neoliberal and one-dimensional understanding of black masculinity and of contemporary African-ness.