Young warriors : youth politics, identity and violence in South Africa
"Much has been written about South Africa's 'lost generation' - the generation of politicised youth who dedicated their lives to the liberation of a nation and who 'lost' everything in the process. Young Warriors is about this generation but it is also a critique of the very concept 'lost generation'. While focussing on the lives of the men and women who lived in Diepkloof, a black township in South Africa, it is a narrative of many young black South Africans who 'grew up' in the organisations of the ANC-led liberation movement. It is also the story of activists who became leaders, provincial premiers and national ministers in our democratic society. Through extensive interviews and time spent in Diepkloof, Monique Marks documents the tales of a group of Charterist youth during the mid-eighties to early nineties. During the period participating in the Charterist youth movement fundamentally shaped these individuals' lives and the future of their society. Marks revisits their lives at the beginning of the third millennium in a new democratic South Africa characterised by a radical decline in this social movement."--BOOK JACKET
Print Book, English, 2001
Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 2001
xx, 171 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
9781868143702, 1868143708
47107596
Dedication Acknowledgements Foreword by Makgane Thobejane List of abbreviations Dramatis personae Chapter 1 Why did Comrade Vuyani Mabaxa have to die?Chapter 2 White woman in 'Little Beirut'Chapter 3 Children of the forced removals: Diepkloof and its youthChapter 4 'Organise and mobilise': The emergence of youth organisations in DiepkloofChapter 5 Becoming a comradeChapter 6 'There is nothing left for the youth': Youth organisations in the early '90sChapter 7 'We cannot die alone': Engaging in collective violenceChapter 8 'We are fighting for the liberation of our people': Justifications of violenceChapter 9 Did Vuyani Mabaxa die in vain? Appendix 1 Theorising Diepkloof youth Appendix 2 The Freedom Charter Bibliography Index