Youth as Tactical Agents of Peacebuilding and Development in the Sahel

One of the major lacunas in the field of youth studies is the lack of attention to, and thorough documentation of, the positive contributions of young people, especially in developing societies. The vast bulk of studies are skewed towards the view of youth as enfants terribles, without any attempt to understand and explain tactical ways in which youth have created and continue to create alternative lives for themselves under great adversity. Drawing on case studies from Northern Nigeria (youth as agents of counter-terrorism) and Northern Mali (youth as tactical agents of development), the burden of this article is to identify the multiple challenges facing youth in West Africa's Sahel region and, especially, to show how Sahelian youth are coping with these everyday challenges in tactical, ingenious and creative ways that underscore both their considerable social agency and their inherent capacity to make telling contributions to peacebuilding and development in their local communities.