The online male community that shares male-supremacist and misogynistic sentiments, the ‘manosphere’ (manosphere·male-centered community), is spreading in Africa as well. Beyond North America and Europe, critical inquiry into and concern about male communities are surfacing.

According to reports compiled from the Guardian and CNN on the 6th, the influence of male influencers who spread misogyny has been growing recently in several African countries. They are active on social media such as X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and TikTok, drawing followers. If the West has Andrew Tate, similar figures are energetically active in Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

The main reasoning of Africa's manosphere does not differ greatly from that of the Western manosphere. Some use terms reflecting an African identity, such as ‘Black manosphere’ and ‘red pill’ (red pill, meaning having taken the so-called ‘red pill’ and awakened), but the fundamental traits are the same: pursuing strong masculinity and being hostile toward women. The Guardian reported, “The male-centered community (manosphere) is a loose network that claims to address men's concerns such as dating and health care, but it often promotes harmful misogynistic attitudes.”

For example, Kenya's Amerix introduces himself as a reproductive health expert on ‘men's health and welfare,’ while calling single women over 30 “red flags” and asserting that “only men can give strength to society.” His core messages include “Do not be nice to women,” “Eighty percent of married men today are unhappy. They have been enslaved,” and “In today's woman-centered world, men are the ultimate losers.” He has 2.3 million followers on X and 160,000 on Facebook.

In Nigeria, Agba John Doe emphasized women's sexual purity and attacked feminists to amass followers. The combined followers of three manosphere influencers including him exceed 1.6 million on X alone. Shadaya Knight, a Zimbabwean with 700,000 followers on X, also drew attention by condemning a photo of a famous female singer's husband holding a baby as a “loss of masculinity.”

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This trend has intensified in recent years. Sunita Caminha, UN Women's officer for East and Southern Africa, told the Guardian that the phenomenon began to surface about five years ago, adding, “Successive studies and data consistently show that the problem is serious across the African continent.” Awino Okech, a professor at SOAS, also said, “There is a direct link between blogs and YouTube channels that demean women and physical violence including femicide. This is evident in the language men use to ‘explain’ why they killed women.”

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CNN analyzed Kenya's manosphere from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2024 and reported that keywords such as ‘soy boy’ (a derogatory term for men perceived as lacking masculinity) and ‘red pill’ spread widely on platforms including X, TikTok, and YouTube. In particular, ‘simp,’ meaning a man friendly to women, was used over 80,000 times in 2021, even though it had not been a commonly used word in Kenya. In 2023, Kenya ranked within the global top 10 for the frequency of male-supremacist-related words and phrases.

CNN reported, “Across Kenya's male communities, the belief that ‘A man without money is nothing’ is widespread. It is also common to hear that men are the true victims of social inequality and gender inequality.”

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With the spread of the manosphere, the threats women face are being felt directly. Migwi, an activist working in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, told CNN that clients come for counseling saying, in effect, “My husband used to be kind, but he suddenly started belittling me and is saying things he never said before.” In one case he encountered, a husband said, “I am an alpha male, I should be treated like a king.” He pointed out that such husbands have been consuming content from manosphere influencers, which has changed how they see their wives.

He also said that after giving lectures at high schools, “Hostility toward women and girls is at a level I had never experienced before. I was shocked to see 15-year-old boys treating women like disposable objects and using very crude language,” he told CNN. One activist said, “More investment is needed to change the stereotype ‘Men should be like this.’ That very stereotype is driving many men and women to ruin.”

The spread of the manosphere in Africa reveals that twisted masculinity and misogynistic attacks are increasing even in regions that had not drawn much attention in related discussions. CNN reported, “While it is often discussed that Western societies have grappled with this issue, the fact that the voices of male-supremacist movements are growing and amplifying in many countries in the southern hemisphere, including countries that represent their regions such as Kenya, is often overlooked.”

In a video on Kenya's manosphere phenomenon, Al Jazeera English assessed, “From New York to Nairobi, there is a pattern to the spread of the manosphere. There exist male communities that glorify outmoded traditions or other patriarchal systems.”

Earlier in the West, the realities of such male communities came to the surface. The Netflix drama <A Boy's Time> released last year addressed the problem of ‘incels’ (involuntary celibates) and sparked a strong response. Incels refers to a group of men who believe that dating or sexual relationships with women are fundamentally impossible and are consumed by frustration.

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According to Australian sociologist Simon James Copland, author of <Why Are Young Men Angry?> (Bada Publishing), the term ‘manosphere’ was first used in November 2009 on a blog called ‘The Manosphere.’ It refers to men's rights activists, pickup artists, and incels. It is known that white men make up the majority racially.

In the book, Copland diagnoses that men's grievances are “mostly focused on sex and dating,” because “it is much simpler to shift the blame to women, feminism, or something visible and easy to understand like love, rather than attributing the causes of unhappiness to a complex and invisible capitalist system.” He also points out that their logic wears the mask of neoliberal self-help.

In recent years, similar questions have been shared in Korean society as well. This has led to the translation and publication of works exploring masculinity, male culture, and male groups, such as <Why Do Men Lack Friends?> (Changbi), <About Boys and Men> (Minumsa), <Why Are Young Men Angry?>, and <Male Fantasy> (Gulhangeori).