Maatian Manhood: A Cultural Model Toward Geru-Maa

Abstract

The hegemonic Eurocentric culture that dominates the United States accultures African American men into an ideal of Manhood that is antithetical to their being. “Man-Up” an emotional deflective and dominating command, has been a bedrock of African American dislocation to their journey towards Manhood. By returning to an African epistemology and culture rooted in the search for Ma’at, African men throughout the diaspora and within the United States can recover a humane and culturally dislocated definition of Manhood that works in concert with their women, environment, and the cosmological order. This dissertation examines the standard of Manhood in Kemet; whether African American men have sought Ma’at in their description of Manhood; and finally, explores how the Maatian standard of Manhood may reorient African American men into a cultural norm that harmonizes families, communities, and ecologies. There is no overarching question for this work. Still, one central focus is to liberate African men from colonizing cultural models of Manhood and reorient them with an African cultural idea founded on the principle of Ma’at.