Through their analysis of the depictions in film and literature of masculinities in colonial, independent and post-independent Africa, the contributors open some key African texts to a more obviously politicized set of meanings. Collectively, the essays provide space for rethinking current theory on gender and masculinity: - how only some of the most popular theories in masculinity studies in the West hold true in African contexts; - how Western masculinities react with indigenous masculinities on the continent; - how masculinity and femininity in Africa seem to reside more on a continuum of cultural practices than on absolutely opposite planes; - and how generation often functions as a more potent metaphor than gender.