The Time of Youth: Work, Social Change, and Politics in Africa

Most young Africans are living in a state of "waithood," argues Alcinda Honwana, finding themselves suspended in limbo between childhood and adulthood. Failed neoliberal economic policies, bad governance, and political instability have caused stable jobs to disappear; and without jobs that pay living wages, these young people cannot become fully participating members of society. But that is only part of the story. Examining the lives of young people in Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia, Honwana focuses on the tremendous transformative potential of the waithood generation—not only in Africa, but also globally—as young people come to believe that the struggle to overcome their predicament requires radical social and political change. From organizing protests in the streets of Maputo, Dakar, Madrid, and New York, to sparking revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, the waithood generation, as we are reminded in The Time of Youth, is using its resources redress the wrongs of contemporary society.