Abstract
The question of defining youth in Africa is one of perennial interest and has elicited a significant amount of scrutiny in the social science and policy literatures. Linked to this debate are concepts such as youth transitions, agency and aspirations. In The Time of Youth, which is based on qualitative work (interviews, focus groups discussion and ‘hanging out’) with young people in four countries—Mozambique, Senegal, Tunisia and South Africa—and analysis of a range of secondary data sources, Alcinda Honwana brings these concepts together with contemporary areas of interest in youth studies such as youth political participation and social change, providing a detailed analysis of youth aspirations in a context of delayed transitions to adulthood. She does this through the concept of ‘waithood’—a prolonged transitory period. The period of waithood is characterized by limited economic and social mobility, and in some cases is a choice made by youth from more affluent backgrounds who are avoiding adult responsibilities because they are not yet ready. Honwana argues that waithood is shifting gradually from being a temporary period to gaining increasing permanence in the lives of young people, in the face of growing inequalities and limited economic opportunities.
Youth is seen in this book not just as an age group—as is often done when chronological definitions are used—but also as a social construct, which is accompanied by various structural and individual level changes, challenges and opportunities. In pointing out that youth is context-specific, Honwana rightly argues that not only are age definitions problematic, they risk making the erroneous assumption that youth is a homogenous category. Indeed, the wide age margin between youth aged 15 and those who are 35 (as youth is defined by the African Union) suggests that individuals across this age spectrum have varying aspirations and may thus require varying degrees of support and interventions to enhance the attainment of their aspirations.
The Time of Youth is essentially about delayed transitions from one life stage to the next, the social and economic factors which exacerbate this delay and the ways in which young people navigate them. In particular, it deals in detail with the strategies which young people adopt to support their livelihood, in a world of ever-shrinking employment opportunities. For example, some of the strategies for ‘getting by’ which the participants in Honwana’s study adopt include scavenging, illegal cross-border trade and transactional sexual relationships. She argues in particular relation to transactional relationships that young people, male and female, are renegotiating and engaging in new forms of intimate sexual relationships in pursuit of personal survival and livelihood. Honwana points out that these strategies are an exhibition of young people’s agency, their capacity to adapt their circumstances, their navigational tool to escape impediments to their aspirations and to work their way towards social adulthood.
One of Honawana’s main contributions in this book is the link between the notion of waithood, youth citizenship and engagement in social change. In this regard, she raises critical questions about young people’s active citizenship and political participation which I believe should serve as a basis for reflection among researchers and practitioners working on or with youth in Africa. For example, she asks, in the context of global and regional youth protests (the Arab spring being an example), ‘Could this represent the beginning of an era in which young people no longer allow themselves to be manipulated by the elites into fighting ethnic and religious conflicts but fighting for their own socioeconomic and political rights? Could this mean the waithood generation in Africa is shifting the battlefield from identity-based conflict into class inequality and rights-based conflict? (p. 167) Will this waithood generation become the next 1968 generation (presumably a reference to the 1968 youth protests in parts of Europe and North America)?’ (p. 169) To these I add: Will the aftermath of the Arab spring uprising and the emergence of new technologies, particularly mobile phones and access to social media, lead to a new wave of youth citizen’s engagement and political activism akin to the 1920s to 1960s colonial youth movements in Africa? These questions are certainly important, and could be critical new frontiers for youth research and political analysis in Africa. Given the weight of the issues they tackle, these questions should definitely be monitored and analyzed in future research.
Overall, The Time of Youth offers an incisive analysis of the experiences of young people in the countries studied, and how they navigate everyday life. It reminds us to recognize the heterogeneity of the youth population, and highlights that youth are active citizens, who have the capacity to act on their own behalf and negotiate space for themselves in increasingly competitive social, economic and political arenas. More so, it reminds us that this generation of young Africans are likely to be more actively engaged in the politics of change, armed with their mobile phones and new social media; they have the capacity to mobilize the world against dictatorships. It is an accessible and interesting read, weaving together key sociological concepts such as youth transitions, aspirations and agency, drawing on a broad spectrum of ethnographic and economic research on youth in Africa and elsewhere. It provides valuable insight into the lives of African youth, and will be a useful resource for policymakers and academics working in the area of youth in Africa.