Vanguard Or Vandals: Youth, Politics And Conflict In Africa (AFRICAN DYNAMICS, 4)

This book contains a range of original studies on one of the major challenges in Africa today: the controversial role of youth in politics, conflict and rebellious movements. The issue is not only the drafting of child soldiers into insurgent armies or predatory militias, as in Somalia, Sierra Leone or Congo, but, more generally, that of the problematic insertion of large numbers of young people in the socio-economic and political order of post-colonial Africa. Even educated youths are being confronted with a lack of opportunities, blocked social mobility, and despair about the future. Many of the political antagonisms and conflicts in which youths are involved do not only exist at the discursive level but are being produced by current demographic and socio-political contradictions in Africa. African youth, while forming a numerical majority, largely feel excluded from power, are socio-economically marginalized and thwarted in their ambitions. They have little access to representative positions or political power, which is making for a politically volatile situation in many African countries. The authors address several case studies from across Africa: the Mungiki movement in Kenya, youth agency in southern Sudan in times of war, the challenges of ‘re-integrating’ youthful ex-combatants in Sierra Leone, and street children in Togo. A common aim is to try to explain why patterns of generational conflict and violent response among younger age groups in Africa are showing such a remarkably uneven spread across the continent and to advance the comparative study of youth and generational conflict beyond mere description of the varied empirical cases. Photographs......Page 7 1 Being young in Africa: The politics of despair and renewal (Jon Abbink)......Page 11 PART I: Historical perspectives on youthas agents of change......Page 45 2 Towards a political history of youth in Muslim northern Nigeria, 1750-2000 (Murray Last)......Page 47 3 Imagined generations: Constructing youth in revolutionary Zanzibar (G. Thomas Burgess)......Page 65 PART II: State, crisis and the mobilizationof youth......Page 89 4 Clash of generations? Youth identity, violence and the politics of transition in Kenya, 1997-2002 (Peter Mwangi Kagwanja)......Page 91 5 Re-generating the nation: Youth, revolution and the politics of history in Côte d'Ivoire (Karel Arnaut)......Page 120 6 War, changing ethics and the position of youth in South Sudan (Jok Madut Jok)......Page 153 7 Anglophone university students and Anglophone nationalist struggles in Cameroon (Piet Konings)......Page 171 8 Past the Kalashnikov: Youth, politics and the state in Eritrea (Sara Rich Dorman)......Page 199 PART III: Interventions: Dealing with youthin crisis......Page 215 9 From generational conflict to renewed dialogue: Winning the trust of street children in Lomé, Togo (Yves Marguerat)......Page 217 10 Children as conflict stakeholders: Towards a new discourse on young combatants (Angela McIntyre)......Page 238 11 Warriors, hooligans and mercenaries: Failed statehood and the violence of young male pastoralists in the Horn of Africa (Simon Simonse)......Page 253 12 Reintegrating young ex-combatants in Sierra Leone: Accommodating indigenous and wartime value systems (Krijn Peters)......Page 277 List of authors......Page 307 "Vanguard or Vandals contains a range of original studies on one of the major challenges in Africa today: the controversial role of youth in politics, conflicts and rebellious movements. The issue is not only the drafting of child soldiers into insurgent armies or predatory militias, as an Somalia, Sierra Leone or Congo, but also, more generally, that of the problematic insertion of large numbers of young people in the socio-economic and political order of post-colonial Africa. Even educated youths are being confronted with a lack of opportunities, blocked social mobility, and despair about the future." "The authors address several case studies from across Africa: the Mungiki movement in Kenya, youth agency in southern Sudan in times of war, the challenges of 're-integrating' youthful ex-combatants in Sierra Leone, and street children in Togo."--BOOK JACKET