When Being a Man Depends on Having Money

What is it about?

This article examines how young men in urban Sierra Leone struggle with the expectation that a successful man should earn enough money to support a girlfriend, wife, children, and extended family. Popular culture, advertising, music videos, racism, and social media strengthen the idea that wealth, fashionable possessions, romantic success, and manhood belong together. Yet more than 90 percent of Sierra Leone’s workers labor in the informal economy, where work is poorly paid and insecure. Drawing on years of observation and interviews with men and women, the article calls this conflict the “dilemma of consumerist masculinity”: men are judged by their ability to provide and consume, even though the economy gives most of them little chance to do so. Young men respond to this dilemma in several ways. They seek influential connections that might lead to jobs, associate with foreigners to gain status, continue hoping that a better opportunity is coming, and sometimes take serious risks, including migration or theft. Smartphones are especially important because they provide access to social life and romance while also displaying a person’s status, yet they are unaffordable for many workers. The article argues that these difficulties should not simply be blamed on men, women, or Sierra Leonean culture. They are rooted in a capitalist system that has spread consumer expectations without creating enough stable employment. The result is that love, dignity, adulthood, and social acceptance increasingly seem to depend on money that most people cannot reliably earn.

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Photo by ajiss on Unsplash

Photo by ajiss on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article is important because it shows how economic inequality shapes deeply personal experiences, including love, relationships, self-esteem, and expectations of manhood. In Sierra Leone, young men face intense pressure to provide financially and display success, even though stable, well-paying jobs are scarce. By connecting these pressures to informal work, poverty, and consumer culture, the article explains why many men experience frustration, insecurity, and difficulty forming lasting relationships.

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