Making Masculinities on the Street
Exploring Street Boys’ Everyday Relationships on the Streets of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo
in Boyhood StudiesAll currencies in US Dollar
Abstract
Raewyn Connell's seminal texts, including Masculinities (1995), The Men and the Boys (2000), and others have contributed to a nuanced understanding of masculinities as both contextual and relational, including gendered power relations, division of labor, emotional relations, and symbolism. This article seeks to extend Connell's approach by using this nuanced lens of masculinities to examine the lives of boys living on the streets of a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The article highlights the experiences of everyday relationships over three years for 19 street boys, aged 13–18, and the role of city spaces in their lives. It suggests that the spatiality and temporality of street boys’ relationships shape their masculine practices and identities, as played out in their everyday interactions with each other and with girls, women, and men as part of their daily survival. A mosaic of street masculinities emerges, that is both fluid and complex, shedding light on previously unexplored masculinities in an understudied group and part of the world.
Contributor Notes
Thandie Hlabana is Lecturer in Sociology and Demography at the National University of Lesotho. Thandie's research focuses on gendered identities, particularly boys’ and young men's masculinities. She has recently worked on projects focused on rural youth livelihoods and intergenerational relations in sub-Saharan Africa and the impacts of COVID-19 in Lesotho. In 2020, Thandie held a Fellowship at the University of Dundee as part of the “Growing up on the Streets Fellowship Program: Building Capacity and Creating Influence”, working with van Blerk, Hunter, and other fellows on secondary data analysis. thandiek@hotmail.com/tk.hlabana@nul.ls
Lorraine van Blerk is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Dundee and Honorary Professor at the Children's Institute, University of Cape Town. Lorraine specializes in participatory and co-produced research focusing on the impacts of inequalities and sociocultural change in the lives of children and youth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. She has published extensively on the lives of street children and youth and has advocated for their voices to be included in policy and practice. She is Principal Investigator on the “Growing up on the Streets Fellowship Program: Building Capacity and Creating Influence”, working with Hlabana, Hunter, and other fellows on secondary data analysis. l.c.vanblerk@dundee.ac.uk
Janine Hunter is a Researcher in Geography at the University of Dundee, specializing in participatory research, qualitative analysis, and co-produced impacts for projects with street children and youth, refugees, and trafficked people. Janine is undertaking a (part-time) PhD on relationships of love and intimacy among street youths in Accra, Ghana. She is Researcher and Co-Investigator in the “Growing up on the Streets Fellowship Program: Building Capacity and Creating Influence”, working with Hlabana, van Blerk, and two other fellows on secondary data analysis. j.u.hunter@dundee.ac.uk