BABA: men and fatherhood in South Africa

Abstract

Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa provides answers to some of the most difficult questions about fatherhood in South Africa: Who is a father? What does it mean to be a father? Is it important for fathers to do more for children in a world that assumes that mothers take the primary parenting role? Do different people understand fatherhood in different ways? What evidence is there of new fatherhood styles emerging in South Africa?

Authors from a range of backgrounds and disciplines break new ground as they explore the centrality of fatherhood in the lives of men and in the experiences of children. They show how fathers? involvement contributes to the well-being of children. The authors argue that men can make a major contribution to the health of South African society by caring for children and producing a new generation of South Africans for whom men will be significant by their positive presence rather than by their absence or their abuse.

In this collection, authors examine the conceptual and theoretical questions posed and attempt to map the field. In the second section, fathers and fatherhood are examined from an historical perspective, showing how race and class have shaped fatherhood in South Africa, and how understandings of fatherhood have changed over time. In the third section, authors discuss the way in which fathers appear in the media, how men as fathers are often ignored or portrayed in narrow ways which inhibit alternative forms of fatherhood emerging. In the fourth section, authors offer answers to how men experience fatherhood and what obstacles bar men from expanding their engagement with children. Finally, the book offers examples of local and international programs that have been initiated to promote fatherhood and to work with fathers.