African Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Urban Mobilities and Peacebuilding Trajectories
Cyril Obi editor Ibrahim Bangura editor Irene D Mngutyo editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:22nd Jul '25
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This book investigates the lived experiences of Africa’s youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, tracing its impact on their mobilities, freedoms, and livelihoods.
Bringing together diverse perspectives from across the continent, the book interrogates how African youth expressed their agency in urban spatial terms during the pandemic, by coping with, adapting, and responding to the deepening marginality, insecurity, inequalities and at the same time opportunities they faced. It further examines how young people navigated precarious spaces during the pandemic, and how the reaction of the state undermined or enhanced their experience. It also considers the question of gender and marginalised group dynamics, and discusses the pandemic’s implications for peace, social justice, security, and human development in Africa.
The strong empirical evidence presented in this book will be an important resource for researchers across African sociology, health, politics, and peace and conflict studies.
"More than elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic has contorted livelihoods in Africa, and those of African youth. The chapters in the present volume provide nuanced analyses of how youngsters in countries as diverse as Sierra Leone, Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia have dealt with the challenges the pandemic produced."
Arnis Vilks, Professor Emeritus and Former Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Germany.
"African youths are frequently noted in studies of African politics and conflicts, but their lived experiences often get lost under the weight of the pathologies of the state. This work puts the experiences of the youth at the centre by examining how they navigate precarious spaces marked by socio-economic, and political problems of African states, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Abu Bakarr Bah, Presidential Research Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department, Northern Illinois University, USA.
"This book takes on urban mobilities and peacebuilding trajectories vis-a-vis African youth during the global pandemic. It draws on robust cases from East, West and Southern Africa. This is topical scholarship underscored by penetrating analysis as well as empirical and theoretical breadth. Students of peace-building in Africa will find this refreshing."
Temitope Oriola, Professor of Criminology/Sociology| Associate Dean Research, Alberta University, Canada.
"With insightful case studies, this volume underlines how Africa’s young generation continues to be at the center of the tumultuous events shaping the fortunes of the continent in the twentieth-first century. In addition to deepening our understanding of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it calls on African states to harness their dynamism and resilience rather than framing them as an antagonistic challenge."
Ismail Rashid, Professor and Marion Musser Lloyd '32 Chair, Vassar College, USA.
"In addition to deepening our understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this insightful volume calls on African states to harness the dynamism and resilience of the continent's youth rather than framing them as an antagonistic challenge."
Irene Elorm HatsuFiebor, Senior E-Learning Officer, Kofi Annan International Peacebuilding Training Center, Ghana.
ISBN: 9781041018506
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 530g
182 pages