African Youth's Democratic Rights Awareness and Participation in Continental Governance
This chapter explored the democratic rights awareness among the youth in Zimbabwe. The youth who live in urban and peri-urban spaces are relatively aware of their democratic rights and a significant number do participate in governance processes in the country, although their participation is largely defined by political party affiliation. There are those youths who are in rural and farming communities who have limited understanding of their democratic rights and responsibilities and most of them believe that participation in governance is simply about voting during national plebiscites and nothing more. The study also found that the development of rights awareness among the youths in Zimbabwe is state-centric and thus undermining the efforts towards effective youth participation. There are some civil society organizations in Zimbabwe that have worked to empower the youth in the country and to create awareness, but this has met with many challenges owing to the hegemonic influences of the ruling political elites and the general political polarization prevailing in the country.