Making Men in Ghana

By featuring the life histories of eight senior men, Making Men in Ghana
explores the changing meaning of becoming a man in modern Africa. Stephan F.
Miescher concentrates on the ideals and expectations that formed around men who were
prominent in their communities when Ghana became an independent nation. Miescher
shows how they negotiated complex social and economic transformations and how they
dealt with their mounting obligations and responsibilities as leaders in their
kinship groups, churches, and schools. Not only were notions about men and
masculinity shaped by community standards, but they were strongly influenced by
imported standards that came from missionaries and other colonial officials. As he
recounts the life histories of these men, Miescher reveals that the passage to
manhood -- and a position of power, seniority, authority, and leadership -- was not
always welcome or easy. As an important foil for studies on women and femininity,
this groundbreaking book not only explores masculinity and ideals of male behavior,
but offers a fresh perspective on African men in a century of change.