Youth, creativity and urban life: insights from classics

Abstract

Youth and leadership appear to be antinomical concepts in modern Kenya. Similarly, youth on one side, and creativity and entrepreneurship on the other appear to be strange bed-fellows. The youth are quasi-synonymous with want of leadership, intellectual dullness, indolence, over-reliance on parents and teachers, and lack of enterprise. This phenomenon stands in stark contrast with traditional African ethos and social mores.

In traditional African setting, the role of the youth was well defined and demarcated. The youth represented that tranche of age between childhood and adulthood. It symbolized the preparation to assume family and community responsibility. Invariably, it was heralded by a rite of passage. Subsequently, the youth were initiated into various chores and codes of behavior to prime them to take over leadership roles. These included warriors, raiders, elders to adjudicate over disputes, etc.

With the advent of urbanization, traditional African life mutates rapidly as the pressure of modern life redefines social roles and responsibilities. The youth is faced with a conflict of cultures, urban poverty, parental neglect, and lack of a social compass to direct their lives. In response to these iniquities, the youth devise strategies, linguistic or otherwise, to cope with this seemingly indifferent and oppressive urban context.

This paper attempts to discuss the condition of the youth in Nairobi with a view to documenting the challenges they face and strategies that could help them cope (or overcome) some of the daunting hardships put in their way by the imperatives of a fast uncoordinated mutations of the City. The paper draws inspiration from outstanding authors who have successfully tackled the issue of personal economic prosperity and self-reliance. Success begins with the individual, not society.

Key words: self-reliance, prosperity, success, youth, entrepreneurship, urban