African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›Youth Power in the IDP Camps

Youth Power in the IDP Camps

By Michelle Barsa
December 27, 2008
1993
0

“Angry Youths become a Force in Darfur,” by Neil MacFarquhar in The New York Times on December 20, describes an undercurrent of the ongoing war that often goes unnoticed: an increasingly militarized conflict between youth and traditional leadership within internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The article succeeds in exposing a few key points, namely that youth are subverting the power of traditional tribal sheikhs within IDP camps, that education and English-language training have advantaged youth in the power struggle, and that youth are strongly connected to the various rebel movements. However, it neglects to contextualize these post-displacement political struggles with historical pre-war patterns. Nor does it touch upon the absence of formal mechanisms for youth leadership within Darfuri society. Furthermore, the article ignores the heterogeneity of the IDP youths’ experience in adapting to war-affected sociopolitical realities.

An important clarification that the article lacks is a distinct definition of “youth.” The term youth in Darfur is used to reference individuals between the ages of 13 and 40 and generally refers, in research, to men. Transition from youth to adult or elder varies by tribe but is usually determined by marital status, parenthood, and understanding of customary law. While all IDPs have suffered extensive loss, the experience of youth is unique in that the loss is compounded by fears of never transitioning to adulthood, never marrying, and never having the opportunity to pursue future ambitions. Since the government and rebel groups see male youth as primary targets for recruitment, arrest, harassment and assassination, their freedom of movement is severely restricted – in contrast to pre-war patterns of internal and international migration that necessitated high degrees of mobility. Exclusion also plays a role as youth were only marginally targeted for assistance and were almost entirely absent from decision-making processes in the initial years of the aid effort. They had no role in “representative” bodies and had no institutions of their own. It is evident how this scenario could cultivate feelings of resentment, anger and frustration, as these co-occurring elements constitute an extreme assault on individual conceptions of identity.

Likely connected to the ways in which the conflict has forced a loss of control over their lives, trends suggest that young men have actively attempted to assert control of territory within the camps. Youth have done this, in part, by taking responsibility for camp security provision (patrolling, maintaining law and order, etc). Technically, these youth are supervised by and report to the Executive Committee of Sheikhs but, often, they operate autonomously. As of 2006, youth began to control external engagement within the camps by establishing temporary checkpoints to restrict access and organizing protest rallies when actors were allowed entrance without their approval.

Evolving roles for youth were juxtaposed with significant shifts in the constitution of traditional tribal authority structures, as many of the traditional leaders had died or abandoned their communities during the conflict. Newly selected leaders within the camps derived their legitimacy not from lineage but from their connection to international organizations and their direct involvement in the distribution of relief supplies (over the last five years, new leaders have become increasingly politicized). These new representatives of the displaced tended to be younger than their predecessors. As a result, young men who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to ascend to that level of authority have, to some extent, infiltrated the ranks of traditional leadership. (It is worth noting that a higher proportion of youth, as opposed to elders, are able to speak English which facilitates communication with international organizations and provides youth with a distinct advantage. Youth become conduits of information for the elders and, in a sense, become arbiters of a new culture – the camp culture. Irrespective of these dynamics, INGOs and the UN generally do not have strategic policies on the political inclusion of IDP youth.)

In the different camps, there are varying dynamics that define the strained relations between IDP youth and traditional leaders. Almost every camp has one or more youth associations that vary in degree of maturity, organization, transparency and politicization. The primary distinction, however, is whether the youth association operates parallel to or in conjunction with the tribal leadership structure. In the case of Abu Shouk camp (as is true for others), youth believe that the camp’s tribal leadership has been co-opted by the Sudanese government and is becoming progressively corrupt. In other camps, such as those surrounding El Geneina in West Darfur, youth reportedly think of the sheikhs as “outdated,” turning instead to insurgent groups for political guidance while establishing parallel governing structures within the camps. Some politicized youth are clearly attempting to assert themselves as representatives of the political wing of the associated insurgent group.

The way that youth have asserted themselves is consistent with an evolution of pre-war norms. Traditionally, youth brigades had served policing and security functions under the auspices of tribal leadership. IDP youth continue these functions within the camps but in a more renegade fashion that has largely asserted its autonomy from tribal leadership structures. Similarly, tensions between tribal administrations and youth have existed for decades, as the two have competed for power within the secular political system. However, war has intensified the vie for power, while exposing to public view what used to be a more covert struggle. In some sense, war has provided an opportunity for youth to remedy their political exclusion. With the insecurity of the conflict justifying militarism and normalizing the use of force, politically-minded youth have found a new way to make their presence felt and their opinions heard.

Michelle Barsa conducted research in Sudan in 2007 on the formal and informal governing structures within Darfuri communities (pre-war and post-displacement), looking specifically at the tensions and synergies that exist between women/youth and traditional tribal leadership. Contact: [email protected]

Previous Article

Bashir Protects Sudan’s Capital with Water Trenches ...

Next Article

Alex de Waal Honored in UK New ...

Michelle Barsa

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    Two Sudans: Nationalism, Self-Determination and Democracy

  • Voting in Nigeria's previous elections. Credit: US Embassy Nigeria/Idika Onyukwu.
    NigeriaPolitics

    Why Nigeria’s battle over the order of the 2019 elections matters

  • Zimbabwe doctor A police officer at a checkpoint in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Credit: KB Mpofu / ILO.
    PoliticsSocietyZimbabwe

    I’m a Zimbabwean doctor. The crisis is even worse than you think.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • Crisis in Lasanod: Border Disputes, Escalating Insecurity and the Future of Somaliland
  • Oligarchs, Oil and Obi-dients: The battle for the soul of Nigeria
  • Of cobblers, colonialism, and choices
  • Blackness, Pan-African Consciousness and Women’s Political Organising through the Magazine AWA
  • “People want to be rich overnight”: Nigeria logging abounds despite ban

Editor’s Picks

Climate crisisEditor's PicksNigeria

We need a people-centred COP26. Instead, we have an elite marketplace

COP26 is full of big boys in small rooms. It needs to be led by the people, not Northern elites with the financial interests in maintaining the status quo. Half ...
  • Chad: The bed Déby made

    By Helga Dickow
    April 22, 2021
  • Travelling While Black Nanjala Nyabola

    The pitfalls – and privileges – of travelling while Black

    By Nanjala Nyabola
    November 18, 2020
  • Malawi’s miracle island, where fish remain plentiful despite climate crisis

    By Charles Pensulo
    April 28, 2021
  • Exhibits from Michael Soi's "China Loves Africa" exhibition at the Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi. Credit: Circle Art Gallery.

    Why is Africa always portrayed as a passive woman?

    By Nanjala Nyabola
    September 18, 2018

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu