Religions and masculinities in Africa

Abstract

The aforementioned trajectory towards the emerging study of men, masculinities, and religion adopts the concept of patriarchy to develop a critical analysis of the ways in which men and masculinities form part of broader structures of gendered power. The main concern is with the inequalities between men and women and with religious ideologies that buttress patriarchal masculinities. The prior discussion has already alluded to various ways in which masculinity has become politicised in contemporary African contexts. Masculinity politics refers to “those mobilisations and struggles where the meaning of masculine gender is at issue, and, with it, men’s position in gender relations. In African contexts, this paradox may be most apparent in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian movements. For instance, Pentecostal discourses of masculinity clearly are a negotiation of modern gender ideals, but are given legitimacy through a language of “biblical manhood”.