Introduction to Youth and Citizenship in East Africa

Generation in Africa has recently attracted considerable and perhaps unprecedented scholarly interest. In the last four years four major institutions have hosted international conferences on in Africa (Social Science Research Council, University of Leiden, Northwestern University, and Amherst College), and, at last report, at least three intended to publish volumes of essays on the subject. In 2002 the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) began its Child and Youth Studies Institute. In 2003 the African Studies Association (ASA) made Youthful Africa in the 21st Century its annual meeting's unifying theme. According to my count, the conference hosted ten roundtable discussions and 160 presentations that examined various topics and issues related to in Africa. If only a fraction of these presentations make it to print, the African Studies community will have more to digest about generation than it has in a long time. A few reasons could be cited. In terms of demography, are hardly insignificant in Africa, given the continent's historically high overall birthrate and youthful population. Nor is the label extremely exclusive, with definitions of youth shifting from one locality to the next. On a very obvious level, are located at the center of Africa's opportunities, challenges and crises of the early twenty-first century, so it is not a stretch for researchers to identify some of the agents who appear in their work as youth. The ASA called for papers concerning the relationship between and urban space, democracy, the study of philosophy and religion, environmental change, economic development, the African Diaspora, resistance to colonialism and imperialism, rural development, visual culture, health issues, gender, information technologies, popular culture, African literature, education, and grassroots activism. Given the presence of young people in so many African cultural, political, and economic endeavors, and in consideration of the category's indeterminate quality, it is possible to elicit scholarly participation on a large scale. It is more difficult, however, to work toward a set of common scholarly understandings about and generation that are neither banal nor easily assailable. How can be defined? How is the category constructed? Is a primary or secondary identity? Are young people to be known as youth, or by some other name? What is the relationship of not