The Sabi Youth Committe: state, ‘age groups’ and civic participation in a Soninke village (Upper River Region, Gambia)

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in those organizations and movements that have, or could have, promoted 'grassroots' participation and the resurgence of 'civil society' in Africa. As has put it: "The reorganization of society liberated from state tutelage became a new motto, both in academic circles and among international aid institutions and their political backers in the West." In this respect, young people have certainly been one of the central and most studied agents in Africa's recent socio-political history, although their contribution to 'civil society' remains a debated question: young people have acted as both makers and breakers of the social order , participating in the struggle for democratisation and civil rights in some contexts, and in others participating in violent conflicts and civil wars (among others.