Makers and Breakers

Presents a range of views on the lives of young people around Africa.This book contributes to a theoretical, ethnographic and historical understanding of issues concerning children, youth, agency, locality, globalization and identity from the past to the postcolony and beyond. As such the authors strive to achieve a better insight into what lives in the hearts and minds of African youngsters. Contributors include: Alcinda Honwana, Filip De Boeck, Jean & John Comaroff, Mats Utas, Pamela Reynolds, Tshikala Biaya,Deborah Durham, Nicolas Argenti, Ibrahim Abdullah & Mamadou Diouf North America: Africa World Press; Senegal: Codesria

This is an important collection of sociological studies of African youth over the past two decades. It proposes a collective view which sees young people as breaking with both old and new African traditions. Across the continent marginalised young people, A sobering book, the authors provide a detailed analysis of how African children are manipulated and relegated to the margins of the public domain. The studies presented in this timely publication touch on crucial areas concerning the youth and their mechanisms for coping with their continued marginalisation. The book's strong point is its theoretical application of concepts of agency and pain, as this sheds light on how youth and women have adapted to traumatic conditions such as rape, conflict and unemployment., The perspectives provided are relevant tools that can be utilised to understand how youth in general, and not just in Africa, are coping with marginalisation., ...this is a publication with a difference. By revealing a number of significant constraints implemented by the elite power structure, it provides the reader with food for thought and a deeper understanding of the complexities that power structures create to exclude young people from the benefits of mainstream economic participation, political acknowledgement and the opportunity to be free from unnecessary and unjust pain. This volume appeals not only to researchers in the field, but to civil society organisations, think tanks, government departments, universities and various other stakeholders.

Alcinda Honwana is Program Director at the Social Science Research Council; Filip de Boeck is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Africa Research Center, Department of Anthropology, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium