Critical reflections on the everyday processes of ‘becoming a man’ in Uganda

By: Dr Amon Ashaba Mwiine, lecturer at the School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, focuses on the everyday processes of ‘becoming a man’ in Uganda #CryLikeaBoy 

 FROM EURONEWS

Until recently, there has been notable public interest in men and boys’ identities, conduct, behaviour, and the kinds of constraints men encounter in everyday life. This wave of interest is inspired, in some ways, by a critical agenda of revealing the dynamics of gender, including conversations on formerly unexamined experiences of men in public discourse, scholarship, activism and generally in everyday life. In particular, increasing focus on men, as subjects of gender conversations could spark a possible change.

That change involves unpacking historical forms of patriarchal power and privilege, interrogating the social process through which masculine and feminine behaviours and practices are framed, policed and reproduced, the effect gender identities have.

This wave of thought motivated my reflection on the common yet taken-for-granted social learnings and expectations about men in Uganda. Social sanctions such as “Onaba Musajja nabakyi ggwe?” what sort of a man will you be?, common to most Ugandan communities, are the subject of this reflection.

In early 2008, I lost my sister after a short illness. She was in her prime years, newly graduated and working at one of the universities in the country. Her passing happened in the same season my dad had retired from public service after 40 years of work.

These hard times occurred when I had just enrolled for graduate studies at Makerere University, with my sister as one of my volunteer sponsors. Her passing and the circumstances at the time could be described as unbearable. However, it was my dad’s reaction to these challenging times that left me with an avid urge to know who my dad ‘really’ was.

 

READ THIS ARTICLE ON EURONEWS

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