Becoming Men - 9781776145676

Becoming MenBlack Masculinities in a South African Township\nAuthor(s): Malose Langa\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Wits University Press, South Africa\nImprint: Wits University Press\nISBN-13: 9781776145676, 978-1776145676\nSynopsis\nThis vivid evocation of the lives of 32 boys from a Johannesburg township is essential reading for anybody wishing to understand black masculinity in South Africa\n Becoming Men is the story of 32 boys from Alexandra, one of Johannesburg's largest townships, over a period of twelve seminal years in which they negotiate manhood and masculinity. Psychologist and academic Malose Langa has documented graphically what it means to be a young black man in contemporary South Africa. The boys discuss a range of topics including the impact of absent fathers, relationships with mothers, siblings and girls, school violence, academic performance, homophobia, gangsterism, unemployment and, in one case, prison life. Dominant themes that emerge are deep ambivalence, se.