Browsing by Author "Dlamini, Melusi Andile Charles."

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Exploring constructions of masculinity among young men in the context of poverty: a case study of Kenneth Gardens, Durban.
(2016) Dlamini, Melusi Andile Charles.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This study explored how young masculinities are constructed and enacted in the context of poverty, unemployment and violence. It sought to understand how poverty shaped young men’s identities, and how they navigated the salient challenges in their lives. The study draws from ethnographic data collected in Kenneth Gardens in Durban, which focused on a group of unemployed men aged between 19 and 30. The study concerns itself with how young masculinities are shaped by social and economic dynamics that unfold in the lives of the young men. This study used the concept of structural violence and adopted a constructionist approach in order to interpret the data collected in the field. The participants’ narratives suggested a dissonance between the young men’s personal circumstances and their aspirations, which demonstrated limited agency. The social and economic marginality of the participants facilitated the emergence of ‘impoverished masculinities’ among the young men, which was marked by the recurrent use of substances and violence. ‘Violent masculinities’ also emerged among the participants as a reaction to instances of victimisation within and around their community. Moreover, the study explored how unemployment and poverty influenced the young men’s enactments of masculinity in relation women as intimate partners. In the study, women were often (hyper)sexualised and objectified, with sexual relationships used as sites of negotiation and resistance in the context of disempowering material conditions. In a context that is increasingly challenging for young people, poverty and unemployment deepened the marginalisation the young men and resulted in the enactment of potentially destructive masculinities. Overall, the data suggests that the context of social and economic marginality lead to limitations in life choices that severely limited the agency of the young men and profoundly affected the construction of young masculinities in Kenneth Gardens.
Young men negotiating masculinities and love in a South African township.
(2023) Dlamini, Melusi Andile Charles.; Bhana, Deevia.
Young black men’s negotiations of love and intimacy, beyond the focus on force and violence, are minimally explored in South African scholarship. While studies have highlighted the ways that heterosexual relationships have functioned as sites through which men maintain their dominance over women, there is limited understanding of the ways that they resist dominant masculinities. Furthermore, recent scholarship has troubled the reductive readings of young black men’s lives, and have called for critical yet sympathetic approaches to understanding their lived experiences (Ratele, 2018). Therefore, this study explores how young black men, situated in the townships of Durban, navigate their experiences of romantic love and intimate relationships. Informed by critical feminist approaches to love and masculinities, this study emphasises the multiple and situated ways of being and knowing, and challenges reductive readings of young men’s lives. Empirical data were generated through individual interviews and focus group discussions with 34 young men in the INK (Inanda, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu) precinct of townships in Durban, South Africa. The research findings suggest that romantic love and intimate relationships are an important feature of young men’s daily lives. For most of the participants, romantic love and intimate relationships extended beyond public performances of (hetero)sexual prowess; instead, love was understood as an essential aspect of their shifting subjectivities – from boyhood to manhood. Key relational practices such as ukuchecka, which are often associated with public performances, emerged as important sites through which participants cultivated emotional and physical intimacies. Among the participants, their romantic relationships afforded new ways of expressing love, which enabled them to deemphasise sexual intimacy, which the participants expressed through the concepts of ukuhloniphana (mutual respect) and ukulinda (waiting). Specifically, romantic relationships were also conceptualised as affective sites that enabled the young men to co-navigate their daily lives with their girlfriends. Therefore, in this study, the critical and situated reading of young men’s experiences with love generated new knowledge about their expressions of love and experiences of intimate relationships. Typically thought of as a site of women’s vulnerabilities, these findings suggest that the context of romantic love offers progressive possibilities for young men to resist dominant masculinities. This study illustrates the value of exploring the mundane, everyday encounters of love and intimate relationships in young men’s lives. These findings have implications for local and international masculinities scholarship interested in the transformative possibilities of love and intimate relationships in young men’s lives.