My Elderly Friends of The Gambia

Abstract

To be sure, The Gambia is a male-dominated society. Yet male dominion should not be taken for granted whether in the public arena or in the intimate sphere of family and gender relations. Both its negotiated nature, and the plurality of models on which the constructions and experiences of masculinity are based, are particularly evident when we take into account the variable of age. This essay is prompted, by the life-trajectories and the ordinary strategies of three elderly Gambian men, to discuss the transition from a phase of strong masculinity to a state of submissive dependence on their spouses in the later part of life. This submission not only shifted gender relations within the household, but also undermined social presence out of it. Crucial to this argument is that only a robust ethnographic approach focusing on apparently insignificant and intimate details has the potential to shed light onto the broader predicaments of contemporary African masculinities.