‘I am a father’: Masculinities and Paternal Narratives in South Africa and Guinea

Drawing from two case studies from South Africa and Guinea, in this chapter we analyse the importance of fatherhood for the notion of masculinities. Using narratives of two (temporally) migrant men, we first explore how the ideas of masculinities and kinship impact specific enactments of fatherhood. We specifically analyse paternal (dis)connections by looking at how father-child relationships are understood, experienced, negotiated, and embodied in the everyday. In South Africa, which accounts for the highest proportion of fatherhood scholarship on the continent, fatherhood is often framed as problematic because fathers are depicted as absent and irresponsible. As a response, NGOs—alongside the prominent development discourse—promote caring forms of fatherhood. Guinea has a dearth of scholarship on men and masculinities in general and on fatherhood in particular.