Social Media Representations of Masculinity and Culture in Inxeba(The Wound)

In 2017 the film Inxeba (The Wound), showing the practice of ulwaluko kwa Xhosa, was released internationally to much discontent and backlash from predominantly amaXhosa people and other black audience members in South Africa. The hashtag movement #TheWoundMustFall testifies to the emotive response to the film's story content and engagement with the cultural practice of male initiation. This article analyses the rigid constructions of culture as sacred relative to gender and sexuality in the film Inxeba through an analysis of commentaries posted on social media online forums. Focusing on the construction of "black" and "amaXhosa" masculinity, ubudoda (manhood), we analyse the ways that certain imaginaries of (black) masculinity and its intersections with sexuality and culture is made (im)possible.