WHAT POLITICS pdf download

What Politics? – Youth and Political Engagement in Africa – Edited by Elina Oinas – Henri Onodera – Leena Suurpää

WHAT POLITICS

Preface and Acknowledgements

In October of 2016, when chapters of this book were being polished and editors and authors were communicating between Helsinki, Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Reykjavik and Montreal, some of the exchanges between us capture the conspicuous spirit and circumstances in which this volume ultimately materialized:

Yes, I can do the revisions to the chapter. Need the distraction… the coun-try is burning …We’re trying. But even debriefing students is considered insubordination … Trying to action things. Feeling hopeless … They shot one woman nine times in the back today … In bed. Doctor’s orders. It’s a mess. The chapter is coming.

As you may be aware, there is political unrest in Ethiopia and a state of emergency has been declared in the country. Because of the unrest, the Internet service has been closed in most places in Ethiopia. This has made it difficult for me to look for more literature. I was only able to read the literature sent to me by you.

The scholarly duties of analysing, writing and ‘arguing’ amount to a painful exercise when conducted amidst university shut-downs and violent chasings and beatings of protesters, in settings flavoured with tear gas and filled with the sound of rubber bullets.

In South Africa, for instance, rioting energized new alliances and sometimes bitter divisions between factions of students and staff have become the order of the day in the mid-2010s. In Ethiopia, academics have limited access to online resources due to the state of emergency announced by the government.

In both corners of the continent, youthful uprisings signal both hope and serious concerns for future prospects. In addition to the courage to envision and claim alternative futures, strong sentiments of disappointment and fear also run high among young people.

National governments are expected to facilitate students’ transitions to adulthood and meaningful citizenship, not let them down, let alone shoot at them.

In these circumstances, universities are far from ivory towers detached from reality but, rather, the epi-centres of claims-making, societal upheavals and youthful aspirations.

At the outset of compiling this volume in 2012, the world was trying to  understand the popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East which