Africa's Urban Youth
Challenging Marginalization, Claiming Citizenship

Draws from extensive fieldwork in three countries to show how African youth negotiate citizenship through daily obligations, relationships, and political engagement.

Amy S. Patterson (Author), Tracy Kuperus (Author), Megan Hershey (Author)

9781009235143, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 August 2023

202 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.415 kg

Making up 65 percent of Africa's population, young people between the ages of 18 and 35 play a key role in politics, yet they live in an environment of rapid urbanization, high unemployment rates and poor state services. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania, this book investigates how Africa's urban youth cultivate a sense of citizenship in this challenging environment, and what it means to them to be a 'good citizen'. In interviews and focus group discussions, African youth, activists, and community leaders vividly explain how income, religion, and gender intertwine with their sense of citizenship and belonging. Though Africa's urban youth face economic and political marginalization as well as generational tensions, they craft a creative citizenship identity that is rooted in their relationships and obligations both to each other and the state. Privileging above all the voice and agency of Africa's young people, this is a vital, systematic examination of youth and youth citizenship in urban environments across Africa.

Introduction: why investigate urban youth citizenship in Africa?
1. Theorizing urban youth and everyday citizenship
2. Manifesting citizenship through local and distinct actions
3. Engaging the state
4. Confronting economic marginalization
5. Contesting citizenship through religious identity
6. Affirming and challenging patriarchy
7. Channeling frustration through exit, exclusion and engagement
Conclusion: challenging marginalization, claiming citizenship
Appendix I: Thematic categories for content analysis
Appendix II: Fieldwork questions
Appendix III: Fieldwork interviews and focus group discussions.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]