Due to growing awareness of the dangers of the generational “disconnect” between Africa’s elderly leaders and the demographic majority of youth under the age of 30, schools are regaining traction as conduits for the training of a new generation of leaders.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in schools in Nigeria and South Africa, this talk juxtaposes two contexts which are producing what has been called a “new breed” of young leaders: (1) highly-selective programs and institutions aimed at creating a “leadership pipeline” for gifted, “entrepreneurial” youth; and (2) recent campus political movements that are, perhaps less intentionally, developing in young people an awareness of their political power.

 

Dr. Krystal Strong is Assistant Professor in Education, Culture, and Society at the Graduate School of Education at University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.