Father involvement in young children's care and education in southern Africa

Abstract

Conceptualizing father presence or absence in discreet terms masks the fluidity of men's involvement with children. It is necessary, in the case of African contexts, to understand the determinants of male presence or involvement, the nature of benefits that accrue to both, and the circumstances that allow these benefits to fully materialize. This chapter reviews fathers' roles and presence through the early years of children's lives in southern Africa. It draws on the available scholarship on men and masculinity in southern Africa to outline the determinants of male involvement, including the role of social, economic, and historical dynamics in shaping the lives of men and their functioning as fathers.