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Accepted Paper:
Genderspace: tracing masculinities to boyhood in Nigeria
Sharon Adetutu Omotoso
(University of Ibadan)
With predictions of gender tilt where men would face a spate of threatened masculinities, this article presents research findings of engagement with boys at two editions of the Ibadan Boys’ Summit, to interrogate what genderspace and their (dis) connects means to boys.
Paper long abstract:
Current trends in gender studies across Africa differ somewhat in focus when compared with prevailing global discourses on gender. Recent trends have shown that any meaningful gender relation in an African space must be built on complementarity and not competition, replacing independence and dependence with a middle course of interdependence. To affirm this, studies have predicted an imminent gender tilt where masculinities would be threatened, and men would face a spate of violence and marginalization. However, gender relations have concentrated less on this; its sweeping rise, and the danger it poses to decades of feminist labor. My years of research and documentation of women revealed the need to engage men, and, in doing this, I realized that building a boy is easier than repairing a man. This article presents research findings from engagement with boys at two editions of the Ibadan Boys’ Summit, organized for boys between the ages 10-18. By examining what genderspace means to boys, the paper argues that concepts such as single-fatherhood, rebachelorization, and widowerhood among others must be examined to interrogate (dis) connections with decades of women and girl-child empowerment. This qualitative study engages critical analysis, deconstructive and reconstructive argumentation to unpack what transformative masculinity would mean in Nigeria, and if its universalization is achievable and desirable.