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Seeds of revolt. Intergenerational relationships in rural KwaZulu, South Africa* * Thanks to Umhlabuyalingana’s people for their hospitality and participation in my research. Thanks also to The Centre for Communication, Media and Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, for hosting this research. The research has been realized within the PhD School of Human Sciences of University of Turin. It has been funded by MIUR, Italian Ministry of University and Research and supervised by Cecilia Pennacini, Roberto Beneduce e Simona Taliani. Thanks also to sundry colleagues and professors for their contributions to this work.

Abstract

The social role of youth, in the last twenty years, has become a key point of the political agenda of many African nations. In South Africa, the consequences of segregationist politics, market economy and migrations have profoundly shaped the social and cultural role of youth, both in urban and rural contexts. Moreover, the end of apartheid has opened a new period of wide transformation. Based on my ethnographic research in KwaMashabane, a rural region of South Africa, this article analyses how the social role of male youth is shaped by national state policy and by local dynamics. I will focus on the relationship between models of adulthood, and the strategies that youth adopt to cope with conflicts and continuities. This analysis will show how post-apartheid freedom and the constraints of the local social structure are negotiated, and how society is coping with the complex relationships between cultural reproduction and social change.

Keywords
adulthood; KwaZulu; South Africa; youth

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