African youth movements put to the test of citizenship, democracy and development

Abstract

Y’en a marre (Senegal), Filimbi and Lucha (Democratic Republic of Congo), Balai citoyen (Burkina Faso), Tournons la page (Burundi), SOFAS (Mali), Stop à la mauvaise gouvernance (Guinea) and Ça suffit comme ça (Gabon) are Africa’s new dissident and citizenship movements. Led by young people from diverse social backgrounds, these movements have become major political and social players in public life in Africa, breaking away from traditional ideologies and the classical political class. They are at the heart of the social and historical dynamics running through the continent’s countries. For a long time socially excluded, then confronted with the exhaustion of the post-colonial state model and the extreme precariousness of their living conditions, young people are today increasingly multiplying the forms of civic engagement, dialogue and reconciliation in the political arena and in the development processes of their respective countries. The importance of this increased role for youth movements can be illustrated by the numerous mobilizations around the issues of democratic changeover, climate change, the high cost of living, improved purchasing power, the plundering of national resources, the contestation of the European presence on the continent and the denunciation of its negative effects through the CFA franc currency and extroverted development. Young people no longer hesitate to act retroactively to deconstruct their culture and identity, using linguistic figures close to the cultures of their respective working-class backgrounds and based on values centered on pan-Africanism, the African renaissance, the continent’s growing independence and references to historical leaders such as Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, AmilcarCabral, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba and Cheikh Anta Diop. They take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new information and communication technologies (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube), not only to interact with each other, but also to make themselves known to the outside world, bypassing the various obstacles placed in their path by those in power. The data analysed here come from a literature review and a qualitative survey of youth citizen movements.