Faculty of Commerce, Management and Law

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Browsing Faculty of Commerce, Management and Law by Subject "African Union"

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    The African Union (AU), the African Youth Commission (AYC) and the Pan-African Youth Union (PYU): Sabotaging or bureaucratizing the youth?
    (2018) Amupanda, Job S.
    There now exists overwhelming evidence that many African states are gerontocracies - states wherein the leadership is way older than the average age of the population. Whereas these discussions were previously attributed to external observers of African politics, particularly observers from the western world, this question of and on African leadership has now gained domestic root. The youth of the continent has since started demanding their places at various decision-making tables within their nation states. This has led to generational antagonism of which some have led to youth-led uprisings. While there are several analyses at the state level, there has been little analysis of the relationship between the African Union (AU) and the youth of the continent. This text takes the analysis to the continental level. The text does not only concern a continental analysis, it’s most important contribution is to add new developments that have not appeared in much of the contemporary literature on African development. To buttress these perspectives, the text looks at the relationship between the AU and two continental youth organizations: the PYU (Pan-African Youth Union) and the AYC (African Youth Commission). It reveals that at the time of writing, Africa was the only continent without a recognized continental youth body. The text is aimed at provoking further questions and discussions on the AU’s youth discourse with this daring question: sabotaging or bureaucratizing youth?