Age and Power in Africa

Research Group

Welcome to the website of the Age and Power in Africa (AaPiA) research group. We are a recently formed group of scholars and practitioners from across disciplines, organisations, and countries, interested in how age and power shape the lived experience of communities in Africa. AaPia was founded jointly by researchers at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the University of Essex, and Africa-based academics.

We hope you will join our virtual seminar to meet us.

Here you can find information on our members, our on-going research, publications, our engagement with practitioners, how we generate opportunities for learning, as well as events organised by group members.

AaPia Research Agenda: Why Study Age and Power in Africa?

How does age shape and structure power in Africa? Recent years have seen numerous reports of a so-called “youth bulge” in many African countries (Mo Ibrahim Foundation 2019), with an increasing proportion of the population classified as young. Africa is home to the youngest population in the world, with a median age of 19.7 years in 2020 (Roca and Schultes 2020). The youth bulge is simultaneously portrayed as a “time bomb” and an opportunity (see UN Africa Renewal 2013). At the same time, many political leaders on the continent are of advanced age, but tasked with representing a young electorate. Moreover, customary authorities – elders or chiefs – and related norms remain influential on the continent and determine various social outcomes for the young (structuring land rights and access, marriage, or inheritance) (Holzinger, Kern and Kromrey 2015; Logan 2013; Logan and Amakho 2022). This striking inequality and polarisation of demography and social influence, pitting the marginalised young majority against more powerful older elites, while not a new phenomenon, is accompanied by a rise in “people power” across the region (Marks, Chenoweth and Okeke, 2019), with citizens increasingly making their voices heard, e.g. via nonviolent mass movements. The US National Intelligence Council predicts that, through 2022, “Sub-Saharan Africa is entering a period of heightened competition between governments and their citizens” (2018, 1). We see the influence of the youthful population in all aspects of life, including political participation, language use and development (Gibson et al. forthcoming), as well as the interaction between different groups. In order to understand how meanings of age and maturity structure power in society, AaPiA brings together research leaders and practitioners from across disciplines and methodological schools to investigate four questions and work programmes:

Expression: What are the meanings of age in Africa? How is the link between age and power in Africa articulated, and made visible and material?

Representation: How does age structure power in Africa? How do political institutions represent and channel age? How does power transition from old to young?

Livelihood: How does age shape well-being in Africa? How do age and power influence the distribution of economic resource and opportunity?

Change: How will age shape and change established authority and power in Africa in the future? How can policy and industry incorporate, mediate and address the future of age and power in Africa?

The below figure summarises our current work programme:

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