African Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Urban Mobilities and Peacebuilding Trajectories

This book investigates the lived experiences of Africa’s youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, tracing its impact on their mobilities, freedoms, and livelihoods. 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. 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.