Table Of ContentA MAN AMONG OTHER MEN
A MAN AMONG
OTHER MEN
The Crisis of Black Masculinity in
Racial Capitalism
Jordanna Matlon
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS I THACA AND LONDON
Some of these chapters have appeared in previous forms in: Antipode; American
Sociological Review; Boston Review; CODESRIA Bulletin; Contexts; Ethnography;
Global Dialogue; Laboratorium; Poetics; and Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia.
Copyright © 2022 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the
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State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.
First published 2022 by Cornell University Press
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Matlon, Jordanna, author.
Title: A man among other men : the crisis of Black masculinity in racial
capitalism / Jordanna Matlon.
Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021039981 (print) | LCCN 2021039982 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501762864 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501762932 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781501762888 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501762871 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Masculinity—Economic aspects—Côte d’Ivoire—Abidjan. |
Blacks—Race identity—Economic aspects—Côte d’Ivoire—Abidjan. |
Capitalism—Social aspects—Côte d’Ivoire—Abidjan.
Classification: LCC HQ1090.7.C8 M37 2022 (print) | LCC HQ1090.7.C8 (ebook) |
DDC 155.3/32—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039981
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039982
Cover image: Colon statues featuring, from left to right: pilot, doctor, mechanic,
businessman, vendor, DJ, footballer, orator. Statues produced in atelier Chez
Ibrahima, with the exception of the pilot produced in atelier Les Frères Seck.
Abidjan, 2021. Photo by Carlos Carmonamedina.
On that day, completely dislocated, unable to be abroad with the
other, the white man, who unmercifully imprisoned me, I took myself
far off from my own presence, far indeed, and made myself an object.
What else could it be for me but an amputation, an excision, a hemor
rhage that spattered my whole body with black blood? But I did not
want this revision, this thematization. All I wanted was to be a man
among other men. I wanted to come lithe and young into a world that
was ours and to help to build it together.
— Frantz Fanon, B lack Skin, White Masks
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Greatness in Each Man 1
Part I THEORIZING BLACK MASCULINITY IN RACIAL CAPITALISM
1. Tropes of Black Masculinity 29
2. The Evolution of the Wage Labor Ideal 33
3. Producer, Consumer, Commodity, Surplus 51
Part II BETWEEN PLACE AND IMAGINARIES
4. Imaginaries of Negation 71
5. Acculturation as Evolution 91
6. Imaginaries of Affirmation 109
7. La crise 123
P art III IMAGINARIES IN A CRISIS ABIDJAN
8. Citoyens and citadins 133
9. Political Imaginaries 141
10. VIP Imaginaries 173
11. The Visual Terrain of Blackness 201
Conclusion: With Every Grace and Cuff Link 233
Postscript: Reflections on Intersections/Infrastructure 241
Notes 249
References 267
Index 285
Acknowledgments
This book culminates a project that began well before I stepped into the field
and continued for years after I had anticipated its natural ending, adopting along
the way new intellectual traditions and expanding my theoretical horizon. It is
the product of many conversations. At times I mostly spoke, and at other times
I mostly listened.
My book owes its greatest debts to the orators and vendors who shared their
reflections and experiences and invited me to learn about their lives. Brilliant and
patient, Raka Ray, Ananya Roy, and Peter Evans were pivotal in bringing form
to this project, and in thanking them I extend additional gratitude to Raka for
being the gravitational force around which an enduring intellectual community
was formed. I thank also my other mentors and interlocutors at UC Berkeley:
Michael Burawoy, Nazanin Shahrokni, Jennifer Carlson, Kimberly Kay Hoang,
Abigail Andrews, and Oluwakemi Balogun. The generous support of the Jacob
K. Javits Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fel
lowship funded my fieldwork. My family in Abidjan made that fieldwork both
possible and wonderful; thanks to Mowa Botembe, Achi Atsain, Isabelle Atsain,
Felicia Atsain, Elodie Kadisha, Marc Kadisha, Tatiana Kadisha, Itzhak Ashkenazi,
Clement Zêkê, Tino, and MC.
My journey continued at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, and
for the gift of three incredible years of insights and friendship I thank Alissa Mac-
Millan, Mohamed Saleh, Jonathan Klingler, Sean Bottomley, and Paul Seabright.
I also thank Edgar Pieterse for welcoming me to the University of Cape Town’s
African Centre for Cities during this period.
At American University’s School of International Service (SIS), I am inspired
by the intelligence and grateful for the camaraderie of the Ethnographers of
Empire: Malini Ranganathan, Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, Erin Collins, Randolph
Persaud, Marcelo Bohrt, James Mittleman, Carolyn Gallaher, Susan Shepler, Lau
ren Carrruth, and Kendra Salois. I thank Rachel Robinson and Christine Chin
for their mentorship, and Allison Beaufort for being such an exceptional mentee.
I thank Olayinka Martins who went from student to interlocutor as the manu
script took shape, and I am eager to read his book. Thanks also to my hardwork
ing research assistants who over the years have helped along this project in its var
ious stages: Kimberly Tower, Megan Prybyl, Bertha Nibigira, Julie Geiger, Jason
Farr, Clement Mutambo, and Zeinabou Saidou Baraze. Institutionally, the free
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