Paper short abstract:

Muscular and strong (male) bodies in Ghana are varyingly enacted as healthy, aesthetic, competitive, controlled, threatening yet also as undisciplined, vulnerable and thus weak bodies. In this paper I explore how muscular ‘macho men’ incorporate most strikingly the notion of the body multiple.

Paper long abstract:

Muscular and strong (male) bodies are enacted in multiple and at times overlapping contexts in Ghana. They are varyingly formed, performed and perceived as healthy, aesthetic, competitive, controlled, threatening yet also as undisciplined, vulnerable and thus weak bodies. In this presentation I show how the Ghanaian phenomenon of so-called 'macho men' (strong, muscular men) incorporates most strikingly the notion of the body multiple. This multiplicity comes to the fore, for instance, during specific sports events and around presidential elections. More particularly, I ethnographically explore how the bodybuilding activities of a group of young Ghanaian men are a means of working not only towards a muscular body, but also towards a mixed future, one that is entangled and envisioned with imaginations, ambitions, potentialities and possibly with violence and vulnerability.