Abstract

Facing an ever-changing political-economic landscape marked by inequality, joblessness, and xenophobia, migrants in inner city Johannesburg are pushed towards the economic margins, or the ‘corner’ of life. In this precarious place, structural and everyday violence shape the daily lives and practices of men from various parts of Africa. This article examines how such men work to live up to self and societal expectations of masculinities while attempting to adjust to the socio-economic realities they face. Departing from the crisis in masculinity narrative, we highlight the multiple, creative ways that men navigate precarity. Our arguments are based on an ethnographic study of masculinities and violence, conducted from June 2017 to February 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Drawing on the stories of two migrant men and more broadly from observations undertaken at Uncle Kofi’s Corner, a street corner hangout and our main ethnographic site, we show how participants mapped urban space to produce enclaved masculinities. In these enclaves, specific scripts on how to be a man were (re)constructed resulting in multiple and unstable masculinities in a perpetual state of becoming.

摘要

面对以不平等、失业和仇外心理为标志的不断变化的政治经济格局，约翰内斯堡市中心的移民被推向经济边缘，或生活的“角落”。在这个不稳定的地方，结构性和日常暴力影响着非洲各地男人的日常生活和做法。本文探讨了这些男人如何努力满足自己和社会对男性气质的期望，同时努力适应他们所面临的社会经济现实。从男性气质叙事中的危机出发，我们强调了男性应对不稳定的多种创造性方式。我们的论点基于 2017 年 6 月至 2018 年 2 月在南非约翰内斯堡进行的男子气概和暴力的民族志研究。我们借鉴了两名移民男子的故事，更广泛地借鉴了在科菲叔叔的角落、街角聚会场所和我们的主要民族志站点进行的观察，展示了参与者如何绘制城市空间以产生飞地的男性气质。在这些飞地中，关于如何成为男人的特定脚本被（重新）构建，导致处于永久状态的多重和不稳定的男性气质。