First Kenya, then Madagascar and now Morocco. A wave of protests under the banner of Gen Z has swept through parts of Africa.
Demonstrators have stormed Parliament buildings. Security forces have killed and injured hundreds, and in Madagascar the President fell from power on Tuesday.
Each protest has had specific causes, but under the surface each reflects the failure of elected governments to provide economic opportunities for young people across a continent with the youngest population in the world, according to protesters and analysts.
The frustration among young people poses a challenge to governments beyond where Gen Z protests have taken place, not least because of the continent’s young demographic. Africa’s median age is 19, which means that young people are entering the workplace and becoming politically active in large numbers.
Young voters in Botswana last year helped defeat the party that had ruled since independence, while in South Africa discontent among young people with the economic performance of the African National Congress helped cause its vote share to fall below 50 per cent for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Young people often lead demands for change and analysts argue that, while social media makes these protests distinct, it does not constitute a fundamental difference.
But social media has made it easier for Gen Z, the demographic cohort born roughly between 1997 and 2012, to outfox the authorities by orchestrating demonstrations on the fly without high-profile leadership.
Kenya, where global Gen Z protests broke out last year, is a case in point. Young people marched through the capital, Nairobi, and other cities to protest a finance bill introduced by the government of President William Ruto that they said would raise prices. Behind that lay an array of grievances, including spiralling debt, corruption, rising prices and youth unemployment.
In recent weeks there have also been protests in Indonesia and Nepal, where the government fell, while President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar was forced to dissolve his government in an attempt to quell protests. The protesters had demanded that he step down for his failure to deliver basic services, including electricity and water. Many young people were not appeased. Madagascar’s new military ruler Col. Michael Randrianirina will be sworn in as President in coming days, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, after a coup he led to oust President Rajoelina.
The demonstrations that erupted in Morocco in recent weeks were driven by anger over spending on infrastructure ahead of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations football tournament and the 2030 World Cup. Three people were killed. The protests, organised by a group known as Gen Z 212, used social media to call for better schools as well as hospitals and broader freedoms.
“Young people want some form of prosperity, they want some form of hope and they are not seeing that,” said Ndongo Sylla, a Senegalese economist and author.
New York Times News Service