ABSTRACT
Africa is overall a young continent, and thus youth plays a significant role in social life. Viewed as violent, vulnerable, or creative, African youth have become since the 1990s the focus of attention from political actors, development agents, and academics. This is particularly true of Muslim youth, at a time when fears about political Islam met concerns about the rise of a young generation deemed unruly. This chapter explores how young Muslims reshape their religion and their societies in diverse and contrasting ways. This reshaping includes engagement with various forms of Islamic and secular education, as well as involvement in a wide range of spiritual orientations, such as reformist or neo-Sufi movements. Muslim youth are central in the redefinition of family norms and gender relations. Jihadi organizations have also partly been fueled by rural Muslim youth discontent. Finally, Muslim youth play a leading role in the redefinition of social and economic sectors, especially by an active involvement in Islamic NGOs and through the promotion of Islamic entrepreneurship.
