Youth, globalisation, and millennial reflection in a Guinean forest town

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a surge in studies of youth culture and social practice. In Africa, as elsewhere, this body of youth-centred research and writing has devoted considerable attention to specific groups within a given country's young population, while largely neglecting others seen to lack either culturally innovative or politically subversive traits. Youths in large cities and young combatants involved in insurgency or counter-insurgency have shared centre stage in studies of youthful Africa. This article argues for broadening the research agenda of African youth studies, calling for increased attention to the interpretive work performed by provincial youths as they try to understand and hopefully alter the future prospects of their communities in the new century. It shows how ideas about the meanings of globalisation and ‘the millennium’, intertwined with experiences of a recent refugee ‘crisis’, are shaping Guinean youths' socio-political reflections and yearnings. In doing so, it stresses just how complicated and cosmopolitan ‘provincial’ life, particularly for young people, has become in Guinea's forest region, as well as the variety and sophistication of the historical ‘materials’ and interpretive schemes through which these youths depict and judge possible local futures.

Coping with trauma and adversity among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: A qualitative, culture-informed analysis

“…Restrictions on travel and internal movement by checkpoints occupation and in an environment of constant political violence. Some studies from South Africa, Northern Ireland and Palestine have shown that active participation and/or ideological commitment to political struggle can increase resilience and enhance coping strategies (Carins et al, 1989;Punamäki, 1996;Straker, 2007). Punamäki et al, in their series of studies in the Gaza Strip, found that stronger ideological commitment among Israeli children was related to fewer psychological problems and that higher exposure to traumatic events was likely to produce more commitment to their cause of liberation and protect children from the negative impacts of collective violence (Punamäki et al, 2004;Qouta et al, 2008).…”

Women, Agency, and the State in Guinea

“…6 The trade unions' major demands were the creation of an inclusive government under a prime minster, the separation of powers, the fight against corruption and bad governance, and, most importantly, the general improvement of the population's living conditions (Camara 2014, 388-392). The government brutally reacted to the protests (International Crisis Group 2007a, 2007bHuman Rights Watch 2007a, 2007b. In February 2007, the trade unions and the government signed an accord.…”

“…Coast covers (parts of) the following countries: Gambia, (southern) Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (Knörr and Filho 2010, 2). 3 See, for example, Claude Rivière (1971), Adamoleku Ladipo (1976), Lansiné Kaba (1976aKaba ( , 1976bKaba ( , 1977, Ibrahima Baba Kaké (1987), Alpha Ousmane Barry (2002), Mike McGovern (2002, Mohamed Saliou Camara (2005, Jay Straker (2007aStraker ( , 2007bStraker ( , 2009, Christian Højbjerg (2010), André Lewin (2010), Alexis Arieff and Mike McGovern (2013), Céline Pauthier (2013), Michelle Engeler (2019), and Anita Schroven (2019). 4 One of the MDG's eight primary goals was to promote gender equality and empower women, cf.…”

A Global Generation? Youth Studies in a Postcolonial World

“…Research evidently featured an early preference for spectacular topics, often focusing on young males in some sort of conflict. While this has rightfully been criticized as potentially "enshrouding the continent in a mystique of otherness and exoticism" [117] (p. 315), the goal of such research was usually quite the opposite: to ground analyses of political violence in ethnographies of young people's quotidian experience. Contrary to the generalizing arguments about endemic corruption and African "neo-patrimonialism" as the hotbed of violent conflicts [100,[118][119][120][121], ethnographers of youth in violent settings attempted to show that these were in fact normal young people responding to exceptional circumstances [53,89,115].…”