Street youth groups (syg) in Morocco represent underground urban counterculture where “class conflict” is being fed by lack of opportunities to climb the social ladder. Indefinable and tormenting globalization (Montgomery, 2019; Wacquant, 2009) has psychologically and socially transformed youth into social “victims”/dreamers of a “modern” wellbeing. Social inequalities exacerbated by covid-19 pandemic produced new precarious youths at the margins of “patronaged” neoliberal policies implemented for buying social peace policies. In this context, this paper is based on an ethnographic research with “Tcharmil” Street youth in the neighborhood of Sidi Moussa in Sale, twin city of the Capital Rabat known for urban violence in substandard housing. In this paper, I argue that these “Mcharmlin” youth are resisting marginalization through invading streets and imposing their “subculture” as a “non-movement” (Bayat, 2013) against inequalities. These humans of Sidi Moussa who are young and poor, facing the Atlantic and far from the Capital about 30 minutes behind walled ancient city of Sale of Corsairs, dreaming of a stable life, job and respect from society, living in “Zanqa 0”. Youth refusing nothingness are invading streets which do not have even a name as all streets are numbered from 0 to 14. each narrow street faces the Atlantic either you escape, or you get stuck if you turn your back on the Atlantic.

Resumen (analítico)Las teorías sobre movimientos sociales dominantes basadas en experiencias occidentales, pero ¿en qué medida pueden ayudarnos a comprender el proceso de construcción solidaria de prácticas políticas en contextos no occidentales políticamente cerrados? Según Bayat parece imprescindible una aproximación teórica que tenga en cuenta tanto la excepcionalidad árabe como la aplicación crítica de los modelos de las ciencias sociales en otros contextos que, muchas veces, olvidan los rasgos específicos que la protesta política ha adoptado en el mundo árabe. Este artículo, en el marco del proyecto Transgang, analizará un movimiento social marroquí aparecido en el Rif en 2016, protagonizado por poblaciones en edad juvenil, atendiendo a sus especificidades culturales usando las perspectivas decoloniales. Con este análisis, se presentarán algunas conclusiones para la investigación sobre movimientos sociales juveniles en sociedades árabes. Palabras clave: Juventud, movimientos sociales, colonialismo, decolonialidad.

This chapter discusses the involvement of African civil society with the thorny human rights issues that are emerging in various African societies. Western civil society has become one of the key factors in evaluating modern democracies, and Africa is not an exception in regarding the presence of thriving NGOs as a sign of a flourishing civil society. The region adopted the universally acknowledged human rights discourses to push for social change. Yet civil society in Africa operates in an environment that is not conducive to its thriving. The lack of democracy and the prevalence of authoritarianism and conservatism make it difficult for a genuine civil society to emerge. Even though Africa otherwise has a dynamic associational life, it could not give birth to a proper civil society. The chapter reflects on the diversity of African civil society activism in Africa and the various uses of human rights discourses to bring about policy reforms.