This book focuses on the lives and experiences of young people in Africa. On agents who, willingly or unwillingly, see themselves as belonging to the socio-generational category of youth and the ways in which they seek to shape and unfold their lives in a positive manner. Rather than seeing youth as either a social or cultural entity in itself, or as a predefined life-stage, the book argues for an exploration of how youth position themselves and are positioned within generational categories. In studying young people, social scientists must conceptualise youth as both social being and social becoming; a position in movement. It is from the duality of being positioned and seeking one’s own socio-generational position that this book engages in the debate on contemporary African youth.

The chapters are based on ethnographic research across the African continent and provide in-depth analyses of the perceptions, positions, possibilities, and practices of diverse groups of young people.

The book will be of value to scholars and students of African studies and social science interested in this major, yet marginalized, social category in contemporary Africa.

Catrine Christiansen was a researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute (2002-2005) and is currently research fellow at the University of Copenhagen. She has worked with issues of religion, development, sociality, childcare and health in Uganda.

Mats Utas holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Uppsala University. He has written extensively on child and youth combatants in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Henrik E. Vigh holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Copenhagen. He has worked on issues of youth and conflict in both Europe and West Africa.