ABSTRACT
Whether the old worries or the demographic “laws” are justified or not, several new factors that should worry government authorities should be considered. Firstly, the internet accelerated and multiplied the metamorphosis of tastes, influences and aspirations of the African youth that had never before been as exposed to external and international frames of reference. Secondly, the new digital era has made the gap between young people’s aspirations and the political and socioeconomic realities they face more visible and less bearable. Thirdly, if being young is to be impatient, the group of young people in Africa is even more so than the previous generation. It is one of the most striking paradoxes that this hyper-connected African youth, regularly exposed through TV, the internet and the radio to external and international influences, maintains a deep, almost umbilical attachment to “a certain idea” – adapting the imagery of Charles de Gaulle and Félix Eboué – to their countries and to Africa.
