Postcolonial masculinity and access to basic education in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper looks at gender inequalities in access to education and analyses of the complex entanglements of masculinity and post coloniality on retention by empirically drawing on the findings of 30 interviews with those who had dropped out of basic education. We discuss how the masculinities affected educational decision making and choices from a post-colonial feminist perspective in three major ethno-cultural groups in Nigeria. We argue that a key distinguishing factor between precolonial and postcolonial masculinity lies in the colonial transformation and impact and highlight that the history of masculinities in Africa is marked by colonial conquests, alterations, and destabilisation of the existing power relation structures and weakening of the socio-political power of the women.