Panel 44: Traumatizing and Traumatized Masculinities: Getting to the Heart of Gender Based Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations in Africa

A critical look at masculinities in contexts of war and conflict is imperative in the face of the conflicts that have become a common feature globally and especially in the African region. In these conflicts nearly 90% of casualties are civilians of who over 80% are women and children. Moreover, systematic and mass rape of women, perpetrated in heinous forms has become part of the battle. Men are also known to experience rape though not to the same extent as women; they have been forced to witness the rape of their wives and daughters, and have also been forced to rape or sexually assault others. They have been forcefully circumcised, suffered castrations and other forms of mutilations. Thus it is a question of masculinities traumatizing other masculinities, with the aim of humiliating and terrorizing not just individuals but entire communities. The concept of traumatized and traumatizing masculinities provides for us an analytical framework through which we can examine the phenomena.

This panel aims at discussing the phenomenon of gender based sexual violence in Africa, with case studies drawn from conflict and post-conflict situations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya Rwanda, Sudan and South Africa, etc. While taking cognizance of the use of rape during times of war and conflict in history, the panel will examine the prevailing gender ideologies, the contextual processes in which these ideologies manifest and continue to evolve and the way they intersect with what we call: “the politics of my pocket” which has contributed to the emerging “traumatizing and traumatized masculinities” in the societies experiencing conflicts in Africa. While the aim of the panel is to gain better understanding of the dynamics shaping masculinities, the discussion will also focus on how communities in question could be involved in process of deconstructing masculinities as a step in dealing with the debilitating traumatisation.