Activley Breaching The Fatherhood Gap

What does it mean to be a father? Fumani Shilubana looks at what it means to be a father, and ways one can be more involved in their child’s life

According to the dictionary, fatherhood is the state of being a father, fathers collectively, the qualities or spirit of a father, which brings me to my next question, ‘what is a father?’, defined, it is a male parent, a man who exercises paternal care over other persons, paternal protector or provider. The two main words that stand out for me in these definitions are care and provide. Provide is a verb and care is a noun, but for this column I want to use the word Care as a verb because I believe that the best way to show someone you care is by your actions. This is one of the reasons why my book is titled ‘To Care Is To Do’.