There has been an increased interest across the globe on how young people participate in building the African democracies. This especially done in the context that participation amongst the youth is declining and is set to decline in future hence the need to know what contributes to the decline in participation.
Most discussions of the youth and their increasing numbers in the African continent are extremely focused on negativity and radical scenarios perceiving youth as problematic, vulnerable and disadvantaged both politically and economically (Resnick and Casale, 2011).
Theoretically, liberal perspectives have dominated the literature on youth participation in building and strengthening democracies internationally (August, 2008). Recent empirical studies suggest that the consequences of the youth bulge in Africa offers many explanations to their political participation. They also point out the importance of youth voices in strengthening democracies in Africa. According to Collier (2007), youths in Africa are voluntarily or forcefully recruited into military rebel movements or army to fight in civil conflicts. One of the reasons for such involvements is the lack of economic security that is offered by jobs. To be able to secure social justice especially in scenarios where their futures are threatened by the regime in power, the youths join rebel movements (ibid).
Most of the analyst on youth issues among them Obonyo (2013) and Msigwa and Kipesha (2013) paint a dire picture of youth unemployment in the continent. According to them the youth bulge worsens the state of affairs in these countries. Lack of effective public policies and non-responsive youth programs have been mentioned as among the major causes of the experienced development especially on the way youth participate politically. Urdal (2012) links the youth bulge to political violence and political dissatisfaction amongst the youth.
Another theme that features the discussion of youth and political participation is generational conflict. Generational conflict in African politics has repeatedly featured in almost all of the post-colonial states (Abbink, 2005). Urdal (2012) questions the theoretical and practical claims that political violence mostly occurs as a result of competition between the youth and the older counterpart in power. His study concludes that the risk of political violence can only be reduced if youths are provided with better economic and educational opportunities.
Though most of the authors have portrayed the youth as described above, analysts such as Olopade (2014) try to rewrite the African story from an Afro-optimist perspective. She considers the youth in the continent as undivided and as being intolerant of old habits of poor performance but very optimistic. Though she tries to portray a positive picture of Africa, she reinforces what some of the experts on the topic of unemployment have concluded. She refers to the state of the youth in Africa as that in "Waithood" whereby they wait for their time to shine economically and politically giving rise to a lot of resentment and despair amongst them.
The literature review done by Resnick and Casale (201l) reveals that scholars have devoted most of their time on how the voter turn among the youth hence concentrating more on the institutionalized participation of the youth in strengthening democracy. Therefore more reason for this research to find out what the youths really do apart from voting. Evidence from these studies suggests that voter turnout amongst the youth is low as compared to the older generation.
Resnick and Casale (2011) reinforces these finding by claiming that the youth in Africa, like other parts of the world, are less interested in voting. Unemployment and social-economic deprivation have been named as among the most highly relevant factors that make the youth participate in politics. The research claims that this trend is not likely to change in future. The study in the end questions the legitimacy of electoral processes as the best way of addressing the youth issues considering the manner in which youth participate. Resnick and Casale (2011) also observes that nationalist leaders through history have been seen to rely on the youth to legitimate their regime.
Additional evidence from Resnick and Casale (2011) suggests that youth compared to their older counterparts are less likely to practice partisan attachments in politics. In addition to this kind of participation the youth are also seen to be involved in collective action, protests and other forms of informal participation like attending community meetings and contacting their local political/party representative (ibid). In matters of age and politics, national leadership is mostly in the hands of the older generation. This contrasts with the fact that the African population has been considered as being youthful. States representatives have been recycled over and over again in every election.
In the afro-barometer study done in 19 countries in Africa, only three presidents were younger than 60 years (Resnick, 2010). Examples that still puzzle many is President Yoweri Museveni who has been in power since 1986, Robert Mugabe who has been in power since the 1980s and has done his level best to prevent Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also past sixty, from ascending to power. In the Kenyan context, elections held in 2007 saw Mwai Kibaki (76 years) assume presidency against Raila Odinga, who was then (62 years). The above political leaders show a generational disconnect between the median age of the populations in Africa and the age of its leaders. Such developments have been made on the assumptions in most African cultures that with age comes wisdom.
This generational gap between the youths and its representatives is one of the identified factors for youth's display of disinterest in participation in democracies. Mwangola (2013) observes that the modern youth have no personal engagement with what happened during colonialism.
Likewise Olopade (2014) argues that the story of colonialism is not what is important in today's youthful population. Instead, she depicted a picture of the youth in today's society as remarkably creative and entrepreneurial and risk takers despite the socio-economic challenges they face in the African settings. A dire question to ask is whether the creativity of the youths amounts to effective political participation in matters that affect them.
On the gender perspective, Abbink (2005) argues that the definition of the term youth includes male and female. He emphasizes the importance of gender considerations while undertaking studies of youth participation in strengthening democracies. He claims that most of the studies on youth and their role in democracies consider the gender dimension as a second information on
However, statistically male youths are more active in politics compared to their female counterparts. Nevertheless, is important to acknowledge the fact female face the same problems, or maybe even more, in seeking to participate in political democracy (ibid). This study has identified a research gap in relation to understanding gender and the youth in matters of politics.
CHAPTER 4