Zimbabwe's unemployed youth: On waithustlinghood, struggle for survival and political activism

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which Zimbabwe's economic crisis compelled its citizens, particularly the youth, to engage in urban informality in order to make a living. In addition to this, the Zimbabwean youth in question have also turned to political activism, which has taken a complex trajectory in that it has assumed oppositional politics as well as politics of patronage. The former hope that a change in the political dispensation in Zimbabwe would lead to a change in the economic fortunes of the country. The latter feast on gains of political patronage for as long as it lasts. The central contribution of this paper therefore, is a nuanced illumination of the unemployment-urban informality-political activism nexus in an African context.