Introduction

Summary

The book explores youth citizenship in the African cities of Accra, Ghana; Kampala, Uganda; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As a significant portion of African populations, youth understand citizenship to be distinct, localized, and dynamic. Rapid urbanization – with its accompanying challenges of overcrowding, insufficient infrastructure, and unemployment – conditions youth citizenship actions and identities. Defined as people eighteen to thirty-five years old, youth reflect a citizenship shaped by neoliberal economic policies that constrain economic opportunities and a neoliberal discourse that fosters themes of responsibility and individualism. Youth citizenship manifests in contexts of political uncertainty, with democratic transitions in many countries stalled and elders often seeking to mobilize – and potentially control – youth public engagement. Despite such challenges, youth in this study chose to act through a variety of public and private means to secure their belonging and assert their rights and responsibilities in the community and the country. As agents, youth negotiate citizenship in light of their various religious, gender, and economic identities through a variety of daily experiences and relationships in the community and their interactions with the state.