School Protests in Africa
School Protests In Africa tracks the important role of schools and school-based actors like students and teachers in galvanizing struggles for social and political change in Africa.
With the growing incidence of youth-led protests around the world over the past 15 years, scholars have attempted to understand the factors shaping the political “awakening” of global youth, who are defined in this literature as ranging in age from 15 to 30 years old. Until this recent wave of activism, youth of the 1990s and early 2000s were often characterized as apolitical and disconnected from conventional forms of political participation. School Protests in Africa intervenes in these conversations, which often erase Africa from analysis of contemporary activism, despite the continent similarly being in the midst of a tremendous upsurge of popular struggle and youth-led activism. This mixed methods project amplifies the importance of Africa to this era of political and educational activism, and documents the incidence and causes of school-based protest in Africa since 2000. With support from the Spencer Foundation, our School Protests in Africa database and map are publicly accessible online.
