Masculinity, the socially “programmed” definition of how the male sex should be, has become one of Kenya’s talking points.
It has raked in a cult following – sometimes likened to be a second religion — thanks to social media and the internet. Today’s masculinity is spread by awoke voices
In Kenya, the movement got its muftis leading from the fore – former radio presenter Andrew Kibe and a healthcare provider Eric Amunga aka Amerix.
Kibe’s musings are commonplace on our social media feeds, presented on Twitter spaces, Instagram stories, and YouTube channels. He endears himself to fans, who have popularly been christened Kifee. Amerix’s masculinity lore is akin to a cult. The fandom gathers weekly on Twitter for the sermon and has mastered his mantras that they often recite after him, online and offline.
These influencers exploit your insecurities to manipulate you or sell you a product. And don’t get too hooked up, there is a fine line between taking the red pill and toxic masculinity.
The Cult
Appears like organized religion. These masculinity movements are ordered and coordinated under the leader. If they grow enough, chapters spring in different places and start to assume a line of command. The masses are its loyal followers who are bound to the common goal by rituals and weekly activities. Members will announce their loyalty, others give testimonies, while others sacrifices for the master.
Emphasize emotion and zeal over rational and logical thinking. Some of their ideas have hardline thinking, borders lawlessness, and only serve to stoke controversy. It becomes hard to sieve these ideas from the broader teachings since they are window-dressed with some truths.
Vague but simple. Amerix’s lore carries the many shades of self-help and it’s not easy to tell apart the masculinity from the other productive aspects. One time he tweets about personal finance, other general life hacks, sometimes nutrition, and then men’s health. Finally, there is Saturday’s rundown of masculinity. The Twitter conversation is so organized crisp tweets subtleties of barbs, toxicity, and mobilizing. In keeping it vague, he has mastered the use of analogies and metaphors that end in “This tweet is not about….” or the banger “will not explain.”
Us against them. The teachings have driven a dividing wedge between genders. Masculinity is at stake from a dark force that kills silently or worse, an imminent apocalypse just about to happen and wipe out masculinity. At this point, the teachings pander to conspiracy theories.
The Cause
On the flip side, the urge to talk or rather teach masculinity could not have come at a better time. It is important to rethink the social contract with the second sex, the crisis of masculinity, and the place of an endangered boychild. Some have proposed an all-men movement to countervail the feminist movement. Gender equality has been biased against men, the menfolk have been reluctant to join, and feminism has often undermined itself — for example, the doublespeak of feminism, double standards, and some excesses seen in the cancel culture.
In any case, talking masculinity has been continual, has narrowed the gender divide, but has never been conclusive – the targets are always moving. In the days of the legacy media, there were some icons of the man talk. Shout out to columnists like Oyunga Pala and Tony Mochama who mediated the debate on the papers. In the era of the internet, there are no gatekeepers. The Kenyan version is mostly through the lens of Andrew Kibe, Amerix, and company. The internet has occasioned the latter generation of masculine culture made of masculine coaches, pick-up artists, courses, merchandise, and the like.
Bottomline, humans have an instinct to hold beliefs and follow faiths and will often fall for masculinity forums or cults where like-minded interests are shared. Talking masculinity is good for society and laudable. However, it must be orderly and guard against radicalization that brainwashes.
