Vanguard or vandals : youth, politics, and conflict in Africa / edited by Jon Abbink, Ineke van Kessel.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Abbink, J.

Kessel, Ineke van.

Afrika-Studiecentrum Leiden.

Series:

African dynamics 1568-1777 ; v. 4.

African dynamics, 1568-1777 ; v. 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Youth--Africa.

Youth.

Youth--Political activity--Africa.

Youth--Political activity.

Youth and violence.

Conflict of generations.

Africa.

Young adults--Political activity--Africa.

Young adults.

Young adults--Political activity.

Conflict of generations--Africa.

Youth and violence--Africa.

Physical Description:

ix, 300 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2005.

Summary:

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. African youth, while forming a numerical majority, largely feel excluded from power, are socio-economically marginalized, thwarted in their ambitions, and have little access to representative positions or political power.

Contents:

1 Being young in Africa: The politics of despair and renewal / Jon Abbink 1

Part I Historical Perspectives on Youth as Agents of Change

2 Towards a political history of youth in Muslim northern Nigeria, 1750-2000 / Murray Last 37

3 Imagined generations: Constructing youth in revolutionary Zanzibar / G. Thomas Burgess 55

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 / Peter Mwangi Kagwanja 81

5 Re-generating the nation: Youth, revolution and the politics of history in Cote d'Ivoire / Karel Arnaut 110

6 War, changing ethics and the position of youth in South Sudan / Jok Madut Jok 143

7 Anglophone university students and Anglophone nationalist struggles in Cameroon / Piet Konings 161

8 Past the Kalashnikov: Youth, politics and the state in Eritrea / Sara Rich Dorman 189

Part III Interventions: Dealing with Youth in Crisis

9 From generational conflict to renewed dialogue: Winning the trust of street children in Lome, Togo / Yves Marguerat 207

10 Children as conflict stakeholders: Towards a new discourse on young combatants / Angela McIntyre 228

11 Warriors, hooligans and mercenaries: Failed statehood and the violence of young male pastoralists in the Horn of Africa / Simon Simonse 243

12 Reintegrating young ex-combatants in Sierra Leone: Accommodating indigenous and wartime value systems / Krijn Peters 267.

Notes:

Based on an African Studies Centre conference held in Leiden in April 2003.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9004142754

OCLC:

56733112