Youth and the State in Guinea: Meandering Lives : An Ethnographic Study of Youth-State Relations in the Guéckédou Borderland

This study is a contribution to the growing body of literature discussing youth and the state in Africa and beyond. This research monograph understands »youth« as a process mirrored in the meandering life trajectories of young people who explore various avenues to social status and adulthood. Inevitably, these trajectories are intermingled with the socio-political context of a Guinean state still in the making. Hence, »Youth and the State in Guinea: Meandering Lives« aims at an history-sensitive analysis of youth-state relations representing a fruitful lens not only to depict youthful agency but also to draw a nuanced picture of political changes and continuities in post-colonial Guinea. Content List of tables and abbreviations Acknowledgments Prologue: Who is young, is courageous! I. Introduction II. At the crossroads. The Guéckédou borderland in the making III. Get the state to work. State iconoclasm and revolutionary youth IV. I am the state. Re-making the state in post-revolutionary Guinea V. Meandering. Being young and growing up VI. Dangerous times. In defence of the homeland VII. War–peace continuum. On the move VIII. Entrepreneurial spirit. Associational life IX. Distant horizons. Belief and innovative development X. Concluding remarks Epilogue: Mutual dependency Appendix I. Timeline of important events in Guinea Appendix II. Key informants Bibliography

By combining an ethnographic study of youth with an analysis of the local state in the making, this research monograph introduces the perspective of »meandering lives« to grasp being young and growing up in the Guéckédou borderland, a remote space approximately 700 kilometers southeast of Conakry, Guinea's capital. This history-sensitive perspective represents a fruitful lens to not only depict youth but to also draw a nuanced picture of the functioning of the state in Guinea.