The shadow of the president's father and his collective handling by different mothers

Firstly I think it is basically my background, how I grew up. I come from a large family. I lost my father when I was very young. I don’t even know him properly. I just know the shadow of him. I therefore grew up in a kind of a collective handling by elderly people. Also because my mother had to go and be a domestic worker and could not stay with me all the time, I was handled by different mothers. All this and more made me appreciate Ubuntu, a culture of respect, which I was taught very strongly. Up to today you would never hear me losing respect, even when there is political debate, I don’t. And I believe even when you disagree with a person you still have to give that person respect, whether old or young people. I think this, to me, was a critical element that moulded me into what I am.

The speaker is Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, president of South Africa. He is being interviewed by Elias Mnyadu and Adriaan Groenewald. (The full interview can found here: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/q-a-with-zuma-1.1137856). The question put to him was, "what do you consider to have best prepared you to fulfil the task (of CEO of South Africa)"?

With my interest in question of boys and men, how we raise boys and how we father,  I was naturally struck by his answer. The first thing that got hold of my attention is how he starts with his family circumstances, in particular the loss of his father when he was very young, as well as being raised by different mothers and elderly people. Not his experience as a worker, trade unionist and leader in the liberation movement in South Africa. He mentions these other shaping influences, but he appears to give primacy to his family circumstances.

The second is his choice of words. He talks about being handled - "collective handling by elderly people" and "handled by different mothers". Perhaps this is a metaphorical rendering of the Zulu word, "ukuphathwa", and nothing more should be made of it. 

However, I want to think that Zuma, a master of the Zulu language, could have chosen other words. He could have spoken about being raised - ukukhuliswa - or gone on and used 'grow' that he mentions at the beginning.

I suspect that he used "handle" because wanted to communicate something more, in his own subtle way. That something more is being fathered and having your mother home every night. It is about presence. About a steadfast and intimate support that all children should take for granted. Zuma wanted to tell about the difficulties of a black boy growing up in a disrupted family life during apartheid. Not in so many words, he says, being without a father and my mother being away at the kitchens, I had to be strong, although I still got to learn about admirable stuff connectedness to others and respect.

The young Jacob must have been 6 when the apartheid governent came to power. Like many a black family in the 1940s, his must have felt the full effects of an enthusiatic white patrirachal supremacist government. Without a father, and with a mother trying to make ends meet, he couldn't have had adequate warmth and intimacy of present and close family.

As all the presidents of democratic South Africa have to differing degrees shown, one can reach as high as possible in one's career without having grown up with stable family environment. Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma, are examples of what men can do against the greatest of odds, when an oppressor denies a people's very humanity. It's called resilience.

However this growing up without constant and warm support of one's parents is not an ideal situation. Resilience is fine, but the warmth of a parent's bosom is irreplaceable. There is no doubt in my mind that it is better for a child's well-being to have a fully present father and mother, not just grandparents, aunts and uncles, if that child is to know what love and happiness means. This in no way privileges nuclear family or biological parents. Quite the contrary, it says the more family connection there is, starting from mother and father, whether adoptive or biological, the less harsh life is and the better outcomes for one's life.

One can't but wonder then what kind of man President Zuma would have become if his father had been more than just a shadow and his mother had been a professional woman. What great society will we be able to create if we manage to put black family life together. If we have been able to achieve so much with so little, to have a president who never went beyond primary school because he didn't enjoy the kind of family support and receive the education many others took for granted, how amazing will we be if we can fix black families and increase the love. 

Fashioning Masculinity: Retrospective 2 - The Elusive Perfect Space for the Fashioned Masculine Body

There is a reason academics have events at academic venues or maybe at the occasional museum or gallery. See, spaces have a tradition of use and certain kinds of events with certain kinds of people and certain kinds of activities belong in certain kinds of venues. You wouldn't expect a soccer match in an art gallery or even on a basketball court, that is if you have the luxury of single-use spaces. At any rate, when we were brainstorming this event, way back in January, we decided to upset the tradition of the academic event and instead merge the form and content according to our topic, masculinity rather than, according to our roles, academics.

At first we wanted a shebeen, there was a murmur of a museum, then a boxing ring, then a gym, then a sports stadium, then a men's clothing store and off we went to find these places so people could sit in a space where masculine bodies were transformed, maintained, fashioned and ultimately regimented into an acceptable masculine form. We wanted to show the facticities of crafting manhood whilst having a conversation of how masculinities are brought into being.

The idea was grand, its execution was not, as we just could not find the perfect space. We entered a wonderful process of discovery but ease of use for an academic event, not so much what with the chairs and tables that needed to be brought into Green Point stadium, who knew that most 'upmarket' stadiums did not have their own furniture. The arduous bureaucracies that had to be navigated were not quite what we were accustomed to (an engineering plan for a stage, I am just  interested in why people are the way they are and like to hear people talking about it in an exciting space; what do I know about an engineering plan for a stage or a waste management plan or a security plan or a medical plan). 

Redesigning an unconventional space to merge with a traditional academic event was a challenge and nevermind that boxing rings disappear from community halls and one has to drive around to find it, we never did. Or reallising that in black townships community spaces or halls, truly are community spaces and are always busy, they are filled with the sounds of children, and adults accessing the state and in Mitchells Plain we even saw men with AK47s guarding something or other. There isn't the luxury of single-use spaces and the wonder and excitement of unconventional usage. They do have their own furniture though!

If anything the tradition in black under-resourced neighbourhoods is overuse of certain spaces which clearly indicate a lack of infrastructure. However the expectations of providing multiple plans to hire the local gym in Langa by the municipal authorities so stymied me despite having the resources of an organisation behind me, that we decided to look elsewhere. The bureaucracy and its demands, indicate that perhaps there is more need than usage indicates as with less gatekeeping, more people would make use of community spaces. If we found it difficult, how hard is it not for the average resident in Langa to hire the community sporting facility?

Anyway, the hunt for the venue delayed us, so did the wait on marketing and in the end we capitulated and did not merge form and content. Masculinity had to emerge in the conventional academic tradition in the conventional space of the Medical Research Council without the sensory experience of a space men made themselves in. We did bring together people who would not ordinarily have been in the same room, voicing similar concerns, interests and hopes and perhaps the bland backdrop showcased the spectacular and some unconventional connections a lot better than the smell of sweat might have.

Traditions II: Everyday Lives of African Men

Every two years Changing Traditions, a project of the Programme on Traditions and Transformation of UNISA's Institute for Social and Health Sciences (ISHS), hosts a major pitso. The aim of the pitso is to consider the state of traditions and transformation on the African continent. The event is the culmination of the theme for the year. The pitso brings together a diverse range of individuals from a range of disciplines and worlds, including but not limired to scholars, activists, musician, researchers, writers, journalists, filmmakers, actors, theatre practioners, businesspeopl and anybody else with interest to engage on traditions. If you do something that I have not mentioned and you have an interesting view on traditions you believe deserves to be heard, we would be interested to give you ears.   

If you have been following the blog you will know that traditions is defined from a variety of perspectives. We see traditions as those conscious or unarticulated pasts that shape the way we engage with each other and the world today, influencing every human endeavor from scholarly research to poetry and how we pray, from war to the way we kiss, from politics to sports rules. 

If you have be following the blog, you will know that we have talking a great deal about men and masculinity. That's because men and masculinity is the theme for 2011. And that's what we shall be talking about in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 28-30 November: the everyday lives of African men. More specifically, we hope that men and women interested in the lives of African men, in Africa and the diaspora, will come and talk. If you are interested, please submit a proposal/abstract/summary of what you would like to talk about to us. Talks should fit in the following panels.    

• Money and Work in African Men’s Lives
• Bodies of African Men
• Men at Play
• Masculinity and the African Diaspora
• Men and Politics
• African Masculinity and Belief/Religion
• Men and Love and Marriage
• Sex and Masculinity
• Men’s Friendships
• Representing African Men
• African Men in the Family

However, we would be interested to hear suggestions for other panels. More details will follow. You can also send for more information by contacting Kharnita Mohamed at kharnita.mohamed@mrc.ac.za.