European University Institute Library

Vanguard or Vandals, Youth, Politics and Conflict in Africa, by Jon Abbink ; (Edited by) Ineke van Kessel

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Vanguard or Vandals

electronic resource

bibliographydictionaries

228171560

by Jon Abbink ; (Edited by) Ineke van Kessel

Brill E-Books - Social Sciences Archive 2000-2006African Dynamics, 4Brill E-Books

Youth, Politics and Conflict in Africa

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.--, Provided by publisher

Contents -- Illustrations vii -- Maps vii -- Tables vii -- Photographs vii -- 1 Being young in Africa: The politics of despair and renewal 1 -- Jon Abbink -- PART I: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON YOUTH AS AGENTS OF CHANGE -- 2 Towards a political history of youth in Muslim northern Nigeria, 1750-2000 37 -- Murray Last -- 3 Imagined generations: Constructing youth in revolutionary Zanzibar 55 -- G. Thomas Burgess -- PART II: STATE, CRISIS AND THE MOBILIZATION OF YOUTH -- 4 Clash of generations? Youth identity, violence and the politics of transition in Kenya, 1997-2002 81 -- Peter Mwangi Kagwanja -- 5 Re-generating the nation: Youth, revolution and the politics of history in Côte d'Ivoire 110 -- Karel Arnaut -- 6 War, changing ethics and the position of youth in South Sudan 143 -- Jok Madut Jok -- 7 Anglophone university students and Anglophone nationalist struggles in Cameroon 161 -- Piet Konings -- 8 Past the Kalashnikov: Youth, politics and the state in Eritrea 189 -- Sara Rich Dorman -- PART III: INTERVENTIONS: DEALING WITH YOUTH IN CRISIS -- 9 From generational conflict to renewed dialogue: Winning the trust of street children in Lomé, Togo 207 -- Yves Marguerat -- 10 Children as conflict stakeholders: Towards a new discourse on young combatants 228 -- Angela McIntyre -- 11 Warriors, hooligans and mercenaries: Failed statehood and the violence of young male pastoralists in the Horn of Africa 243 -- Simon Simonse -- 12 Reintegrating young ex-combatants in Sierra Leone: Accommodating indigenous and wartime value systems 267 -- Krijn Peters -- List of authors 297

Youth, Politics and Conflict in Africa