Hegemonic masculinities in Ayi Kwei Armah’s the healers and Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa

Abstract

The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah and Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa are two texts that focus on issues of manhood and masculinity in traditional Ghana. These writers subvert the normalization of hegemonic masculinity vaunted by society and to which many of the men in society ascribe. By throwing a critical lens on the male protagonists in the texts as gendered subjects and examining the influences that contribute to their subjectivity, this paper highlights the various constructions and manifestations of masculinities in the texts; critiquing the social institutions that make these constructions possible,showcasing the often negative consequences of masculinity on its performers, and theorizing new approaches to the male protagonist in African literary texts. In spite of the different portrayals of men by the authors, one common theme is that normative hegemonic masculinities limit and restrain the potential of the growth of the male character