“Male-Power”: Bodily Substance, Gendered Vitality, and Intimate Citizenship in Kenya

Öffentlicher Vortrag von Prof. Dr. George-Paul Meiu (Universität Basel)

The bodily substance of “male-power” – nguvu za kiume, in Swahili – material element imagined as sustaining normative gender difference has become an element of profuse social anxiety in recent decades in East Africa. A presumed lack of “male-power” has made the bodies of some men targets of state rehabilitation efforts. Meanwhile, bodies driven by a surplus of “male-power”, especially those of so-called “bodaboda”, young motorbike-taxi operators, have also come to the attention of leaders and civil society groups. Engagements with “malepower” work to revitalize national belonging through the management of a material bodily substance at once commodified and invested with cultural logics of risk, anxiety, and fragility. This lecture examines how social anxieties over this bodily substance drive efforts to anchor citizenship in intimacy and securitize private domains related to the body.

Einführung: Prof. Dr. Axel Christoph Gampp, Präsident der Aeneas-Silvius-Stiftung

Vortrag in englischer Sprache. Im Anschluss an die Vorlesung wird mit einem Apéro die Möglichkeit für persönliche Gespräche eröffnet.

Ganze Ringvorlesung https://aeneas-silvius.ch/ringvorlesung-2023/