The (Im)possibilities of Waiting: Precarity, Creativity & Embodied Youth Labour in Africa
Youth are often regarded as the primary agents of future-making. But what happens when they find themselves trapped in a state of precariousness—caught somewhere between mobility, waiting, and uncertainty? How do they navigate this liminal space? Where and how do they wait, and at what cost? What drives their decisions to move or wait? In what ways are these decisions impacted by gerontocratic heteropatriarchal states and a racialized capitalist global economic order? In light of these questions, this talk explores the intricate interplay between precarity, creativity and embodied youth labour. Accordingly, I highlight how African youth navigate the boundaries between work and non-work, online and physical spaces, and the relationship between the city and the body in contexts of waiting, mobility, and precarity. I argue that youth emerge as a profoundly creative force—strategizing and developing innovative ways to reshape their temporalities and envision a future where life is not only livable but also one in which they can thrive and derive joy. By exploiting the ruptures and cracks within everyday socio-spatial relations of power, youth life-making practices reveal alternative spatialities and temporalities that transcend pre-defined dichotomies and linear life trajectories. Importantly, I emphasize that these alternative spatialities and temporalities broaden our understanding of youth agency—moving us beyond mainstream understandings of resistance and revealing non-traditional responses, intentional pauses, isolated acts, and the inventive use of popular arts and media. Through these practices, African youth redefine how to create, and deliberately choose when and how to wait or move.
Moderator
Grace Musila, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)