The Man's Tea. Masculine Sociability and Street Culture in Mali

In contemporary urban Mali, tea drinking is one of the most commonplace and widespread masculine activities. Tea groups called grins are formed bringing together men of the same age in a public area, in particular on the street. The ways of drinking and the everyday life of these tea groups constitute a privileged springboard to think masculinity and gender perspectives. Their description allows a better understanding of the issues of tea preparation, of the gift practices that they lead to, of their place in the urban space and of the forms of diversity that they sometimes invent. This article thus suggests studying the generation of masculine identities in the detail of everyday life practices and through the production of images of masculinity.