Youth_Reading Memo

The article “Enough is Enough!”: Youth Protests and Political Change in Africa by Alcinda Honwana brings some very interesting and, in my opinion, useful concepts that can help, at least a little, explain behavior of African youth. One really innovative concept is socalled „waithood“ which is the description for the period between childhood and adulthood and which is characterized by the inability of young people to find a job and because of that become independent and start a family. It is interesting to compare this situation with the situation in the Czech Republic. I would argue that there is no such thing as „waithood“ period, of course in the Czech Republic there are young people who are not able to find a job and move out from their parents, however, the difference is that the society does not perceive these youths as not-adults. In my opinion, the concept of adulthood in this state is rather connected with age than with the ability to become independent – therefore the opposite than in African countries. I would also argue that the perception of the not-yet-independent young Czech people is not so severe as in the African states. My point of view is that Czech parents are much more tolerant to the situation when their children stay living with them when they reach the age of 18, I do not think this is the same in many African countries. One reason for this attitude may be the fact that many African parents can hardly support themselves and therefore it is not possible for them to provide also for their children. They can even rely on some financial help from their kids and if they do not get it, their situation can worsen significantly. The author of this article stated that „severity of the impact of waithood on the lives of young Africans depends on each individual’s character, abilities, and life skills“, then she added that „it is also, largely, a function of their family background, level of education and access to resources“. In my opinion, the latter set of determinants is far more important for the African young people than the former. I would argue that even despite the youths possess great character and abilities, it is still very hard for them to become independent and get a well-paid job if they do not have the necessary education or support from their families. Also, because of the fact that in many African countries there is a huge level of corruption, it is almost impossible for many young people to get a job with good prospects even despite they have the needed education and skills. Therefore, it cannot be really surprising that some African young people are frustrated by this situation. They can eventually end up in some insurgent group and even resort to violence because the group can offer them the so much needed income. Another interesting, however not so surprising, point made by the author was the statement that African youth do not want to participate in political parties and prefer engaging in movements where the party membership is not required and also fighting through virtual world. I acknowledge that this form of involvement, especially sharing their campaigns on internet, can sometimes have wider impact than local protests and can draw in the so much needed and sometimes crucial attention of the international community (a great example of this was the Kony 2012 video made by Invisible Children). However, I would argue that these kinds of resistance are successful mainly in democratic countries where the authorities have to listen to the public and usually cannot afford to ignore dissatisfactions of citizens. As it has been proved several times, autocratic leaders often disregard manifestations of dissatisfactions because their only concern is to keep their power. Therefore it is almost impossible for the youth or citizens in general to change anything (however, I acknowledge that there have been several examples when this form of resistance have proved successful). Thus I would probably argue that in its local context the participation in political parties can maybe have bigger impact when there is continual and systematic pressure on the authorities which is supported by the votes of the citizens (again, this does not apply to the cases where there is no political competition). Another very interesting and in some ways eyes-opening article was 'Why We Fight': Voices of Youth Combatants in Sierra Leone by Krijn Peters and Paul Richards in which the authors conducted several interviews (not only but predominantly) with Sierra Leonean child soldiers fighting on the side of governmental Republic of Sierra Leone Military Force, on the rebels side (The Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone) and also on the side of Kamajo militias. The authors offered the readers an unique insight into the motivations of child soldiers and questioned probably the most common perception of child soldiers who are, at least in my opinion, very often perceived only as victims abducted by different fighting groups and used as fighting force against they will. The authors challenged this position through several interviews which they conducted. However, they did not make any conclusions in their article and explicitly stated that the „purpose of this article is to let young combatants explain themselves“ and that „the reader is left to decide whether they are the dupes and demons sometimes supposed“. However, after reading all the interviews, it cannot be easily said and concluded that all the children are „demons“ or „victims“. It would be a great mistake to generalize all the cases since all the children had different motivations. We can definitely find an example of a kid who could be described as a „demon“ (interviewee number 4) and also a clear example of a „dupe“ (interviewee number 3). Another thing that was really interesting about the article was that the authors showed that not all the child soldiers come from poor, rural and uneducated families, as many people would think. The clear example of this misperception was the interviewed girl in the second interview who volunteered as a soldier and who came from very supportive family and had a good level of education.