Africa Today

Men In Africa Today

African men in the modern context can be analyzed as going through a paradigm shift culturally and intellectually. While it is true that a great number of men decide to stick to the old ways of getting things done, quite a number have also decided to challenge the status quo and bring about real change and disruptive solutions. This is mainly the characteristic of the transitive state the men in Africa are in.

In the social construct of many african societies presently, there seem to be acceptable “manly” roles designated for men to occupy. For example, there is an acceptable mindset or social construct that the man must be the provider for the family and anything beyond this reality is regarded as an anomaly. This is hardwired into the brains of african men that it need not be taught explicitly as it is imbibed inherently. This puts men on their feet and generates in them a high motivation for success because of what is at stake. It is no surprise that the numbers of african men being high achievers are way more than african women.

As mentioned before, african men are going through a paradigm shift and this is partly due to the improvement of education in Africa generally. There is a slow move to achieve self-actualization rather than engaging in useless socialization with other men which do not yield any long-term benefit. It is almost as if the pan-african Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s dream is now being realized as creating an Africa that is capable of taking care of itself. With top-class universities set up and opportunities for scholarships to make these institutions accessible to most, the mindsets of Africans are constantly being changed so to speak. An institution like Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda is pushing the frontier of technology further and further enabling Africans to achieve in actuality that which was before only imagined.

In conclusion, while men in Africa are generally affected by the underlying cultural constructs, there is a discerning approach to select the practices that are reasonable and favorable for the future,  leaving behind unhealthy and archaic ones.

References

Ezeugwu, C. R., & Ojedokun, O. (2020, December 1). Masculine norms and mental health of African men: what can psychology do? PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7734219/#bib8

Ngubane, S. J. (n.d.). GENDER ROLES IN THE AFRICAN CULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS [E-book].