Coloniality of youth : the slavery-migration nexus in contemporary Africa

Abstract

This thesis investigates how coloniality of youth, especially in contemporary Africa, implicates and is implicated by the slavery-migration nexus. While coloniality of youth is used to analyze a form of Euro-North American or global-North’s hegemony involving the unjust exploitation of the youth population of a territory deemed weak, inferior, and formerly colonized, the slavery-migration nexus is migration of especially young vulnerable people from mostly Africa to the global-North for exploitative labor. The problem is that the youth-related exploitation that manifested explicitly in the African slave trade, implicitly in colonialism, and continues to manifest variously in modern/colonial world; including in the current racialized migration age requirement of some countries of the global-North, is yet to be conceptualized at once as coloniality of youth. The guiding questions are: How does the Euro-North-American hegemony constitute coloniality of youth? How does coloniality of youth implicate and is implicated by the slavery-migration nexus? To justify the coloniality of youth thesis, I adopt the method of conversational thinking to identify lop-sidedness in human relationships leading to racialized conditions, and advocate equitable complementary intercultural engagements between regions to promote global justice. I conclude that promoting the well-being of young Africans is a desirable good towards the achievement of global peace and security. I recommend: equitable global power relations between Africa and the global-North, ‘conversation’ rather than the ‘might is right’ syndrome in global power relations, socio-economic self-reliance for Africa and, philosophical exercise in practically relevant issues in Africa.