ORCID
0009-0004-6915-4777
Abstract
Financial provision continues to factor significantly in how Black men perceive and enact fatherhood, influencing the extent and manner of their paternal engagement. The enduring representation of men primarily as financial providers constrains the generation and enactment of alternative modalities of fatherhood within families and society. This qualitative study explored how the everyday lived experiences of young Black men in Soweto, South Africa, influence their varied engagements with fatherhood as they navigate structural constraints to pursuing their ideal of fatherhood. An exploratory descriptive qualitative approach was employed. We conducted two sets of semi-structured interviews with 19 young Black men in Soweto and analyzed data using a reflexive thematic approach. Four themes were generated from the data: (1) Provision dominates: being a man is being able to provide. (2) It is not all about money: presence matters. (3) A family shapes a man’s identity. (4) Social fathers have an impact. These themes echo through the narratives that shape how men negotiate fatherhood within their everyday lived experience and contexts. Financial provision continues to be conceived as a primary instrument for allowing men to perform their ideal of fatherhood, and, under precarious conditions, men actively perform multiple modalities of fatherhood in Soweto.
