Kustawi is KiSwahili for “thriving.”

Kustawi creates a space that contributes to the thriving of African descent boys, men, and those who love them. It is a shared space to explore healing, restore dignity and build resilience for individual, household and collective actualization through knowledge dissemination.

The Institute recognizes that many African descent boys and men are impacted by misandrist dehumanizing stereotypes, unspoken trauma, and the silencing of their emotional lives. Providing access to advocacy, community education, research and psychotherapy, Kustawi is a knowledge institute that supports men and boys in remembering their creative power, reclaiming their voice and re-imagining love of self and intimacy as sources of strength and connection.

The Institute will play an important role in raising awareness and offering solutions to the hidden crisis of the sexual abuse of African descent boys and men. Borrowing from a psychotherapist who contributed to knowledge-making in my research the concept of “annihilation of consent”, Kustawi will be at the forefront of addressing urgent need to address sexual and other forms of trauma in the lives of African descent boys and men. Unaddressed and unacknowledged trauma results in:

Academic underperformance
Externalized and internalized
Low self-esteem
Negative self-perception
Psychological distress
Stigma and shame

Our Goal

Kustawi strives to promote engagement, disseminate knowledge and conduct research that will enable African descent boys, men and those who love them to thrive and continue their life’s journey with an enriched sense of themselves endowed by the Grantor of Dominion (GoD).

Contact

Tamari of Kitossa
Professor, Sociology
Brock University
tkitossa@brocku.ca