Masculinities in the African National Congress-Led Liberation Movement: The Underground Period

This article aims to uncover elements of the formation and manifestations of masculinities within the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies. While notions of masculinity or masculinities have been examined in other literature, this work tries to specify the precise character of a distinct process and phenomenon in an organization, primarily in its period of illegality. This bears resemblances to that found in other situations, but ANC masculinities have specificities that need to be brought into the foreground. This enquiry locates masculinity formation in situations and complexities that have not previously emerged. In certain ways, these relate to a past that is in some respects a warrior tradition.