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Engaging Postcolonial Cultures: African Youth and Public Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Mamadou Diouf
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Abstract:

The violent irruption of African youth into the public and domestic spheres seems to have resulted in the construction of their behavior as a threat, and to have provoked, within society as a whole, a panic that is simultaneously moral and civic. At issue are the bodies of young people and their behavior, which escape the constraints of social construction, their sexuality and pleasure, as well as the formulas of their action and presence as junior social actors. The new situation has consequences for several issues, the most important of which are the redefinition of the relationships between identity and citizenship in the whirlwind of globalization, the metamorphoses of the processes of socialization, the production of new forms of inequality accompanied by their own representations and imaginations, and the extraordinary mutation of the chronological and psychological constructions of the passage from youth to adulthood.

Résumé:

Résumé:

La violente irruption de la jeunesse africaine dans les sphères publiques et domestiques semble avoir eu pour conséquence la construction de leur comportement comme menace, et semble avoir provoqué dans l'ensemble de la société une panique à la fois morale et civique. Les arguments invoqués sont les corps des jeunes gens et leur comportement, qui échappent aux contraintes de la construction sociale; leur sexualité et leur plaisir; ainsi que les codes régissant leurs actions et leur présence en tant que jeunes acteurs sociaux. Cette nouvelle situation a des conséquences dans plusieurs domaines, les plus importants d'entre eux étant la redéfinition des relations entre identité et citoyenneté, prises dans le tourbillon de la globalisation; les métamorphoses des processus de socialisation; la production de nouvelles formes d'inégalité, accompagnées de leurs représentations et de leur imaginaire spécifiques; et l'extraordinaire mutation des constructions chronologiques et psychologiques du passage de la jeunesse à l'âge adulte.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , September 2003 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2003

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