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Articles
By Jocelyn Newmarch
Posted on iAfrica.com, September 16, 2002
You’ve probably heard this old joke. “Why can’t I find a man who’s loving, sensitive, affectionate and caring?” “Because, dear, those men already have boyfriends.” If this hits home, there is hope.
It’s a cliche that men are emotionally illiterate, that they’re commitment phobic and unable to express their feelings. Several commentators — ardent feminist Germaine Greer among them — have noted a “crisis of masculinity” in recent years, and to address this, the men’s movement has spearheaded attempts to redefine, or reaffirm masculinity in a positive light. The ManKind Project began in 1985, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with 17 men. Since then, nearly 30 000 men, on four continents, have been initiated into the New Warrior programme. Integrity and accountability are core values of the movement.
Who am I, as a man? What am I doing here? What’s my mission in life? Who do I serve? Men are challenged to ask these questions and begin to answer them on the weekend.
The ManKind Project’s motto is “Changing the world, one man at a time,” and that’s exactly what they set out to do with their New Warrior Training weekends, teaching South African manne to get in touch with their feelings and embrace the warrior inside.
As one New Warrior, Michael Wetzler, explains, it’s about “being a warrior in a new kind of way, facing up the shadows in your being. Men are wounded and we aren’t fathered well enough, however much our fathers wanted to.”
The brochure proclaims that “the ManKind project offers men the opportunity to look deeper into their lives and make healthy choices about their future.”
Participants and their partners alike have nothing but praise for the program.
New Warrior Tetile, one of 33 who were recently initiated, said that he would definitely recommend the course to others. “Many men are walking around with empty spaces, they want to fill it up with things they don’t even know. Then you get to the course (the New Warrior Training), and you are walking around with a dragon in your body, and that scares you. So you need to pull out that dragon, then you find yourself and you have a new vision for the whole world.”
Andries du Toit, Centre Director for the ManKind Project in South Africa, says that when he was a little boy, he was taught that “a man is somebody who’s big and strong and tough and that means he doesn’t show his feelings — in fact he doesn’t have feelings.
"A man is someone who can take a beating and who can give one too, especially those who are smaller and younger. A man is someone who pushes women around.
"I don’t know about you," he adds, "but those lessons weren’t very helpful to me, or to these 33 men (the initiates) who have pledged to do things differently.”
So what actually happens on this course? Well, the details are kept secret, but I can reveal that the program includes journalling, games, and guided imagery visualisations.
The next courses are in 2003 and run from February 28 to March 2, and May 30 to June 1. Training starts at 6pm on Friday and continues until 4.30pm on Sunday. For more details, contact Kim Phillips on 083 461 1106. Check out the ManKind project’s websites: http://www.mkp.org/ and http://www.mkp.org.za/
This article is a printout from iafrica.com
Copyright © 2000 iafrica.com*, a division of Metropolis*
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