1 - Introduction: Ideologies of Youth
Corresponding Author(s) : Rijk Van Dijk
Africa Development,
Vol. 36 No. 3-4 (2011): Africa Development: Special Issue on ‘The Ideologies of Youth’
Abstract
In a number of countries in Africa, such as Uganda and Kenya, national publics have been discussing whether citizens of age 50 or even 60 should be regarded as ‘youth’. Under the current dispensation of do- nor funding, relief programmes and international aid, these discussions have made the ‘youth’ the major beneficiary of what these policies offer and imply. There is a general feeling, however, that these policies should target all age groups in their youth-oriented programmes. If the donor- ideology prescribes youthfulness for societal and developmental rel- evance, it will then dictate practice. This is just one example of what this special issue will address in an attempt to explore what we see as an emerging development in Africa and beyond: the rise of youth as an ideology. Whereas Africa has witnessed the rise of a fast-growing study of youth as a phenomenon and as a concept, the aspect of youth as ideology has, so far, not been elaborated on.
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- Abbink, Jon and Ineke van Kessel, eds., 2005, Vanguard or Vandals: Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa, Leiden: Brill.
- Abbink, Jon, 2005, ‘Being Young in Africa: The Politics of Despair and Renewal, Introduction’, in Jon Abbink and Ineke van Kessel, eds., Vanguard or Vandals: Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 1-34.
- Aguilar, Mario I., ed., 1998, The Politics of Age and Gerontocracy in Africa: Ethnographies of the Past and Memories of the Present, Trenton NY and Asmara: Africa World Press.
- Alber, Erdmute, Sjaak van der Geest and Susan Reynolds Whyte, 2008, Generations in Africa: Connections and conflicts, Berlin: Lit Verlag.
- Baxter, Paul TW and Uri Almagor, eds., 1978, Age, Generation and Time: Some Features of East African Age Organizations, London: Hurst.
- Bradbury, Robert E., 1969, ‘Patrimonialism and Gerontocracy in Benin Political Culture’, in Mary Douglas and Phyllis M. Kaberry, eds., Man in Africa, London: Tavistock, pp. 17-36.
- Bourdillon, Michael, 2008, ‘Children and Supporting Adults in Child-Led Organisations’, in Erdmute Alber, Sjaak van der Geest and Susan Reynolds Whyte, eds. Generations in Africa: Connections and Conflicts, Berlin: Lit Verlag.
- Bruijn, Mirjam de, 2007, ‘Agency in and from the Margins: Street Children and Youth in N’djaména, Chad’, in Mirjam de Bruijn, Rijk van Dijk, Jan-Bart Gewald, eds., Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 263-284.
- Bruijn, Mirjam de, Rijk van Dijk and Jan-Bart Gewald, eds., 2007, Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa, Leiden: Brill.
- Chatterton, Paul and Robert Hollands, 2003, Urban Nightscapes: Youth Cultures, Pleasure Spaces and Corporate Power, London: Routledge.
- Christiansen, Catrine, Mats Utas and Henrik E. Vigh, eds., 2006, Navigating Youth, Generating Adulthood: Social Becoming in an African Context, Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute.
- Cole, Jennifer and Deborah Durham, 2007, ‘Introduction: Age, Regeneration and the Intimate Politics of Globalization’, in Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham, eds., Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and Family in the New World Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-28
- Dahl, Bianca, 2009, ‘The Failures of Culture: Christianity, Kinship, and Moral Discourses about Orphans during Botswana’s AIDS Crisis’, in R. Prince, Ph. Denis and R. van Dijk, eds., Africa Today, Special Issue, vol. 56, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 23-43.
- Dijk, Rijk van, 1999, Pentecostalism, Gerontocratic Rule and Democratization in Malawi: The Changing Position of the Young in Political Culture, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- Durham, Deborah, 2000, ‘Youth and the Social Imagination in Africa: Introduction to Parts 1 and 2’, Anthropological Quarterly, vol.73, no. 3, pp. 113-120.
- Durham, Deborah, 2007, ‘Empowering Youth: Making Youth Citizens in Botswana’, in Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham, eds., Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and Family in the New World Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 102-131.
- Fields, Karen Elise, 1985, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa, Princeton: NJ/Guildford, Princeton University Press.
- Garcia, Mario and Jean Fares, eds., 2008, Youth in Africa’s Labor Market (Directions in Development), Washington D.C.: World Bank.
- Geschiere, Peter, 2009, The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Honwana, Alcinda, 2006, Child Soldiers in Africa, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Honwana, Alcinda and Filip de Boeck, eds., 2005, Makers and Breakers, Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa, Oxford: James Curry.
- Johnson-Hanks, Jennifer, 2002, ‘On the Limits of the Life Cycle in Ethnography: Toward a Theory of Vital Conjunctures’, American Anthropologist, vol. 104, no. 3, pp. 865-880.
- Last, Murray, 2005, ‘Towards a Political History of Youth in Muslim Northern Nigeria, 1750-2000’, n Jan Abbink and Ineke van Kessel, eds., Vanguard or Vandals: Youth, Politics and Conflict in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 37-54.
- Lindegaard, Marie Rosenkrantz, 2009, ‘Coconuts, Gangsters and Rainbow Fighters: How Male Youngsters Navigate Situations of Violence in Cape Town, South Africa’, PhD Dissertation, Amsterdam, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
- Maira, Sunaina and Soep, Elisabeth, eds., 2004, Youthscapes: The Popular, the National, the Global, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Moyer, Eileen Marie, 2003, In the Shadow of the Sheraton: Imagining Localities in Global Spaces in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’, Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
- Nieuwenhuys, Olga, 2001, ‘By the Sweat of Their Brow?: “Street Children”, NGOs and Children’s Rights in Addis Ababa’, Africa / International African Institute, vol. 71, no. 4, p. 539-557.
- Nyamnjoh, Francis and Peter, Geschiere, 2000, ‘Capitalism and Autochtony: The Seesaw of Mobility and Belonging’, Public Culture, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 423- 452.
- Parkin, David, 1972, Palms, Wine and Witnesses: Public Spirit and Private Gain in an African Farming Community, London: Intertext Books.
- Perullo, Alex, 2005, ‘Hooligans and Heroes: Youth Identity and Hip-Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’, Africa Today, vol. 51, no. 4, p. 75-101.
- Pype, Katrien, 2007, ‘Fighting Boys, Strong Men and Gorillas: Notes on the Imagination of Masculinities in Kinshasa, Africa/International African Institute, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 250-271.
- Richards, Audrey, 1935, ‘A Modern Movement of Witchfinders’, Africa, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 439-451.
- Robson, Elsbeth, Nicola Ansell, Ulli Huber, William Gould, and Lorraine van Blerk, eds., 2006, ‘Young Caregivers in the Context of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population, Space and Place, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 93-111. Skovdal, Morten, 2010, ‘Children Caring for Their “caregivers”: Exploring the Caring Arrangements of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Western Kenya’,
- AIDS Care, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 69-103.
- Simpson, A., 2003, “Half-London” in Zambia: Contested Identities in a Catholic Mission School, Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.
- Sommers, Marc, 2006b, ‘Fearing Africa’s Young Men: Male Youth, Conflict, Urbanization and the Case of Rwanda.’ in Ian Bannon and Maria Correia, eds., The Other Half of Gender: Men’s Issues in Development, Washington DC: World Bank.
- Sommers, Marc, 2006a, ‘In the Shadow of Genocide: Rwanda’s Youth Challenge’,
- in Siobhán McEvoy-Levy, ed., Troublemakers or Peacemakers? Youth and Post-Accord Peacebuilding, South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press.
- Sommers, Marc, 2003, ‘Youth, War, and Urban Africa: Challenges, Misunderstandings, and Opportunities’, in Diana Varat et al, eds., Youth in Developing World Cities, Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
- Trudell, Barbara, ed. 2002, Africa’s Young Majority, Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
- Vigh, Henrik, 2006, Navigating Terrains of War: Youth and Soldiering in Guinea- Bissau, New York: Berghahn.
- Vigh, Henrik, 2008, ‘Crisis and Chronicity: Anthropological Perspectives on Continuous Conflict and Decline,’ Ethnos, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 5-24.
- Weiss, Brad, 2005, ‘The Barber in Pain: Consciousness, Affliction and Alterity in Urban East Africa’, in Alcinda Honwana and Flilip De Boeck, eds., Makers & Breakers: Children & Youth in Postcolonial Africa, Oxford: James Curry, pp. 102-120.
- Werbner, Richard, 2002, ‘Introduction: Challenging Minorities, Difference and Tribal Citizenship in Botswana’, Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 671-684.
- Witte, Marleen de, 2008, ‘Spirit Media: Charismatics, Traditionalists, and Mediation Practices in Ghana, PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
References
Abbink, Jon and Ineke van Kessel, eds., 2005, Vanguard or Vandals: Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa, Leiden: Brill.
Abbink, Jon, 2005, ‘Being Young in Africa: The Politics of Despair and Renewal, Introduction’, in Jon Abbink and Ineke van Kessel, eds., Vanguard or Vandals: Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 1-34.
Aguilar, Mario I., ed., 1998, The Politics of Age and Gerontocracy in Africa: Ethnographies of the Past and Memories of the Present, Trenton NY and Asmara: Africa World Press.
Alber, Erdmute, Sjaak van der Geest and Susan Reynolds Whyte, 2008, Generations in Africa: Connections and conflicts, Berlin: Lit Verlag.
Baxter, Paul TW and Uri Almagor, eds., 1978, Age, Generation and Time: Some Features of East African Age Organizations, London: Hurst.
Bradbury, Robert E., 1969, ‘Patrimonialism and Gerontocracy in Benin Political Culture’, in Mary Douglas and Phyllis M. Kaberry, eds., Man in Africa, London: Tavistock, pp. 17-36.
Bourdillon, Michael, 2008, ‘Children and Supporting Adults in Child-Led Organisations’, in Erdmute Alber, Sjaak van der Geest and Susan Reynolds Whyte, eds. Generations in Africa: Connections and Conflicts, Berlin: Lit Verlag.
Bruijn, Mirjam de, 2007, ‘Agency in and from the Margins: Street Children and Youth in N’djaména, Chad’, in Mirjam de Bruijn, Rijk van Dijk, Jan-Bart Gewald, eds., Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 263-284.
Bruijn, Mirjam de, Rijk van Dijk and Jan-Bart Gewald, eds., 2007, Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa, Leiden: Brill.
Chatterton, Paul and Robert Hollands, 2003, Urban Nightscapes: Youth Cultures, Pleasure Spaces and Corporate Power, London: Routledge.
Christiansen, Catrine, Mats Utas and Henrik E. Vigh, eds., 2006, Navigating Youth, Generating Adulthood: Social Becoming in an African Context, Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute.
Cole, Jennifer and Deborah Durham, 2007, ‘Introduction: Age, Regeneration and the Intimate Politics of Globalization’, in Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham, eds., Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and Family in the New World Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-28
Dahl, Bianca, 2009, ‘The Failures of Culture: Christianity, Kinship, and Moral Discourses about Orphans during Botswana’s AIDS Crisis’, in R. Prince, Ph. Denis and R. van Dijk, eds., Africa Today, Special Issue, vol. 56, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 23-43.
Dijk, Rijk van, 1999, Pentecostalism, Gerontocratic Rule and Democratization in Malawi: The Changing Position of the Young in Political Culture, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Durham, Deborah, 2000, ‘Youth and the Social Imagination in Africa: Introduction to Parts 1 and 2’, Anthropological Quarterly, vol.73, no. 3, pp. 113-120.
Durham, Deborah, 2007, ‘Empowering Youth: Making Youth Citizens in Botswana’, in Jennifer Cole and Deborah Durham, eds., Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and Family in the New World Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 102-131.
Fields, Karen Elise, 1985, Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa, Princeton: NJ/Guildford, Princeton University Press.
Garcia, Mario and Jean Fares, eds., 2008, Youth in Africa’s Labor Market (Directions in Development), Washington D.C.: World Bank.
Geschiere, Peter, 2009, The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Honwana, Alcinda, 2006, Child Soldiers in Africa, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Honwana, Alcinda and Filip de Boeck, eds., 2005, Makers and Breakers, Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa, Oxford: James Curry.
Johnson-Hanks, Jennifer, 2002, ‘On the Limits of the Life Cycle in Ethnography: Toward a Theory of Vital Conjunctures’, American Anthropologist, vol. 104, no. 3, pp. 865-880.
Last, Murray, 2005, ‘Towards a Political History of Youth in Muslim Northern Nigeria, 1750-2000’, n Jan Abbink and Ineke van Kessel, eds., Vanguard or Vandals: Youth, Politics and Conflict in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 37-54.
Lindegaard, Marie Rosenkrantz, 2009, ‘Coconuts, Gangsters and Rainbow Fighters: How Male Youngsters Navigate Situations of Violence in Cape Town, South Africa’, PhD Dissertation, Amsterdam, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Maira, Sunaina and Soep, Elisabeth, eds., 2004, Youthscapes: The Popular, the National, the Global, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Moyer, Eileen Marie, 2003, In the Shadow of the Sheraton: Imagining Localities in Global Spaces in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’, Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Nieuwenhuys, Olga, 2001, ‘By the Sweat of Their Brow?: “Street Children”, NGOs and Children’s Rights in Addis Ababa’, Africa / International African Institute, vol. 71, no. 4, p. 539-557.
Nyamnjoh, Francis and Peter, Geschiere, 2000, ‘Capitalism and Autochtony: The Seesaw of Mobility and Belonging’, Public Culture, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 423- 452.
Parkin, David, 1972, Palms, Wine and Witnesses: Public Spirit and Private Gain in an African Farming Community, London: Intertext Books.
Perullo, Alex, 2005, ‘Hooligans and Heroes: Youth Identity and Hip-Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’, Africa Today, vol. 51, no. 4, p. 75-101.
Pype, Katrien, 2007, ‘Fighting Boys, Strong Men and Gorillas: Notes on the Imagination of Masculinities in Kinshasa, Africa/International African Institute, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 250-271.
Richards, Audrey, 1935, ‘A Modern Movement of Witchfinders’, Africa, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 439-451.
Robson, Elsbeth, Nicola Ansell, Ulli Huber, William Gould, and Lorraine van Blerk, eds., 2006, ‘Young Caregivers in the Context of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population, Space and Place, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 93-111. Skovdal, Morten, 2010, ‘Children Caring for Their “caregivers”: Exploring the Caring Arrangements of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Western Kenya’,
AIDS Care, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 69-103.
Simpson, A., 2003, “Half-London” in Zambia: Contested Identities in a Catholic Mission School, Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.
Sommers, Marc, 2006b, ‘Fearing Africa’s Young Men: Male Youth, Conflict, Urbanization and the Case of Rwanda.’ in Ian Bannon and Maria Correia, eds., The Other Half of Gender: Men’s Issues in Development, Washington DC: World Bank.
Sommers, Marc, 2006a, ‘In the Shadow of Genocide: Rwanda’s Youth Challenge’,
in Siobhán McEvoy-Levy, ed., Troublemakers or Peacemakers? Youth and Post-Accord Peacebuilding, South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press.
Sommers, Marc, 2003, ‘Youth, War, and Urban Africa: Challenges, Misunderstandings, and Opportunities’, in Diana Varat et al, eds., Youth in Developing World Cities, Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Trudell, Barbara, ed. 2002, Africa’s Young Majority, Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
Vigh, Henrik, 2006, Navigating Terrains of War: Youth and Soldiering in Guinea- Bissau, New York: Berghahn.
Vigh, Henrik, 2008, ‘Crisis and Chronicity: Anthropological Perspectives on Continuous Conflict and Decline,’ Ethnos, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 5-24.
Weiss, Brad, 2005, ‘The Barber in Pain: Consciousness, Affliction and Alterity in Urban East Africa’, in Alcinda Honwana and Flilip De Boeck, eds., Makers & Breakers: Children & Youth in Postcolonial Africa, Oxford: James Curry, pp. 102-120.
Werbner, Richard, 2002, ‘Introduction: Challenging Minorities, Difference and Tribal Citizenship in Botswana’, Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 671-684.
Witte, Marleen de, 2008, ‘Spirit Media: Charismatics, Traditionalists, and Mediation Practices in Ghana, PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.