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Youth perception on human security in Africa
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Human security and stability is one of the most important essences for human beings to develop their human and material condition. Often it’s natural to seek for security after one insures its basic sustenance. It’s with the human security that creativity, industrialization and development enhanced. Moreover, human security has broad base which can affect every human being. Human security have shift the attention from state centered approach to people centered approach in order to ensure the environmental, economic, food and physical security to the human beings in this world. That is, human security issues transcend borders and they are responsibilities of global citizens.
Africa is one of the most insecure continent in our world. There have been number of conflict situations in various parts of the continent. The people of Africa pervasively suffer primarily from the freedom of fear and the freedom of want. That is, there have been various extremely violent situations like civil war, international conflicts caused by ethnic hostility, border dispute, struggle for control of resources and so on. This has made the people in general to be vulnerable even in securing their basic freedom from physical security and attack. The instability and violence coupled with the natural calamities like drought and famine have further deteriorated the human security in the continent.
Different types of human insecurities exist in Africa among those the major ones are; economic, food, political and environmental insecurities.
Economic insecurity; large number of people in Africa especially the youth is economically insecure. That is, they don’t have decent job which can enable them to change their lives and others. Economic insecurity causes with different reasons probably its one of the most difficult challenge that Africa face. One of the reasons is the fact that Africa is unable to compete with other countries in globalized world. The continent has only 2% share in the international trade. And it has been always the price taker instead of being price maker and this is mainly resulted by the fact that majority its people in engaged in producing primary goods in traditional way and there is low level of industrialization. Moreover, the economic performance the continent has been stifled with consequent civil war and corruption. As result economic insecurity has handicapped the people; in gaining access to proper education, health and above all food and shelter which is the basic necessity to make sure the sustenance of the people. consequently, their develops a new sort of view that’s to get rich in short cut which further widespread the practice of corruption, crime and theft. That’s, all the social illness have strong relation with poor economic performance of the continent.
The other one is political insecurity; Africa is one of the most politically unstable continent in our world. It has witnessed number of dictatorial regimes and they have caused an immense human right violations. And there also has been various violent transfer of power in form of coup. These cases can signify that democracy in Africa had only few years and it can take some time to consolidate it. As result most of the regimes are insecure and they would rather build their military capacity and enlarge there administrative wings to stay firm and resist all the challenges While, their citizens are unable to get the basic access. There is also instability in many of the countries in controlling the government power and there exist different factions of militias against the government forces which have further worsen the situation. The people are always caught in fire between these two groups and they obliged to flee to neighboring countries in search of secure and stable places. The struggle for political power has brought discontent and ethnic polarization among the people of Africa in causing spontaneous violences.
Food insecurity: is the other form of insecurity that’s common in Africa. Lack of food security is highly related with the intensity of poverty and its one of its manifestations. And Africa is one of the most impoverished continent in our world. In Africa many of the population resides in rural areas engaging its self in agriculture and these people mainly depend on rain fed agriculture when there is no rain the people suffer from drought situation and that in most cases handled in improper way and results frequent famine. Famines can kill thousands with hunger. All human beings have the right to be protected from freedom from want that includes the right to have three meals in a day and these days even more than war and conflicts its hunger and starvation that kills more people. And Africa is one of the continents that strongly hard hit by extreme hunger. Hence, food insecurity create basic human insecurity.
Environmental insecurity- environmental insecurity is common issue of our globe. The green house effect and the increasing pollution of the air is caused by the developed world but still the number one victims of that’s the African countries. Moreover, the other major pollution is water pollution. And that has been seen widely in many part of the continent and causes different kinds of water born diseases and so many children’s have died as result of polluted water.
In Africa, there is considerable larger number of youth comparing to other continents. This part of the society has been largely affected with the instability. The youth in Africa have been through lots of challenges in midst of insecurity and instability. If the environment were a youth brought up and raised is not healthy and filled with destruction then, it would be very difficult for that youth to be productive and effective. Besides, with the environment where there is lack of economic, health, food, political and physical insecurity hampers the youth from basic access to education and ways to grow and develop their skills. Africa is continent were never lived with in peace without crisis situations which further hinders the continent from using its rich natural resources, threatened the lives of thousands and made the youth to be desperate and think nothing but migration to other countries in illegal and life threatening ways. Lack of human security in African countries witnessed in the Rwanda genocide were thousands has been killed and slaughtered; in Nigeria were the youth has been engaged in group fight over controlling oil resource and which further escalated by the ethnic hostility; in Somalia the youth has been affected in pursuing its own dreams with continuous civil war among different clan groups; in Ethiopia it was the youth which has been the victim with the border dispute with Eritrea; in Congo, Burundi, Seralion and Angola in all of these places there was heavy fighting between the government and other rebel groups and the major participants were the youth. The ones that are relatively stable countries in Africa they have been struggling to ensure the sustenance to their people including the youth. However, mostly their efforts have been undermined by unfair trade and political marginalization of the continent. This further has a cyclic effect to the human security. For instance, if the government fails to address economic and food needs then it can be vulnerable for people to apprise and the security conditions could deteriorate time to time. Hence, the development situation significantly affects the peace and stability of these countries. It’s through once environment a person tends to realize and understand its surrounding. In the environment where there is lots of chaos, violent conflict and war the people can be displaced from their home land and in this course the youth can be destructed in many ways in pursuing continuous education, building its career and being productive.
The youth is part and parcel of the society. And it has huge potential in a development of a country. Lack of human security can be an obstacle for the youth to take part in different developmental activities. The perception of the youth in Africa has its roots in its larger societal values and traditions. It has also affected by colonial indoctrination. That is, the view of humanity and its worth has been undermined in various severe situations like famine and civil war. This situation has developed intolerance, suspicion and hostility among the youth in terms of ethnicity, border dispute and controlling government. And this has been hindrance in having positive attitude about human security. There have been various cases were young children are dispatched to war and kill the opposite party. And there has also been the cases were the youth engage itself in violent demonstrations, riots and illegal activities like bunkering and vandalism. All these are results of continuous war and struggle and the problem of previous generation can transcend to the present generation and it can affect the present youth same way it has affected before. Hence, the fact that Africa has been in to; many war crisis situation and this has imprinted to the present generation and probably its one of the ungrateful things that this generation inherited. On the other side, there are some positive moves from the youth in developing good leadership and tolerance culture to society. There are various attempts by the youth to bring good leadership and governance in the continent by organizing different youth associations and work for greater objective, if these attempts supported and encouraged it can have an enormous influence to inspire and change the youth in particular and the society in general. It’s in healthier and secured environment that these sort of positive activities can grow and bring complete transformation of others. The major stakeholders, including the private sector has to build youth centers, sport academies and studying libraries so that they can develop and enrich their talent and reach their dreams. But what is witnessed in African continent is the continuity of civil strife, war and hunger. These should by no means be an obstacle on the development of youth sense of leadership.







August 28, 2008 | 3:45 PM Comments  0 comments

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