Over the past year, a wave of mass protests has swept through the capitals of some African states. From Nairobi to Lagos, Accra to Dakar, angry protesters have marched to the sound of exploding tear gas shells and live bullets to rail against hunger and inequality while demanding an end to IMF austerity. From June to August this year, the movement rose again with tens of thousands exploding onto the streets in Kenya, while hundreds of activists turned up at an anniversary event in Lagos, Nigeria to reflect and map out next steps.
Provoked by deep economic frustrations and lack of opportunities, these youth-led protests have shaken Africa’s aging ruling classes to their bones, making a forceful argument for a new social pact, anchored on a paradigm of national sovereignty, inclusive growth and social welfare.
These digitally-organized and decentralized Gen Z uprisings are not copycats of the youth-led movements of the 1990s and early 2000s — even though the issues that are fueling them are broadly the same. Rather, through new organizing methods, the Gen Z uprisings are reshaping the landscape of civic engagement while also showcasing the incredible power and dynamism of Africa’s youth.
This is seen in the sheer scale of turnout at these protests, in the raw courage displayed in the face of blood-curdling repression and in the use of social media as an organizing tool for social change.
Last year’s youth uprising in Kenya, which used the hashtag #RejectFinanceBill2024, is the most emblematic of this new form of youth-led activism. The movement was provoked by a raft of tax increases proposed by President William Ruto on several basic consumer products, including sanitary pads, and it was organized almost entirely on social media.
“Social media platforms especially TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook have been pivotal in mobilizing and directing the struggle, countering state propaganda” said Okaka Npap, a 34-year-old activist from Kayole, Nairobi, who played roles in organizing the protest last year.
Lacking formal structures, social media became the command center of the uprising. Organizers utilized social media to build support, pass information, organize and direct the actions on a daily basis. The creativity of celebrities, bloggers and TikTokers who leveraged their online influence was crucial in provoking mass participation. They helped create “an atmosphere where even those [who were] apolitical felt called to act,” Npap added.
At its height, the movement brought tens of thousands of protesters to the street, showcasing the incredible organizing prowess of young people. Protesters rallied not only against the finance bill but against neoliberal austerity, corruption and authoritarianism. On June 25, 2024, Kenya’s youth breached the parliament in an incredible display of collective rage that set alarm bells ringing among elite circles across the continent. Ruto was forced to withdraw the hated finance bill but this did nothing to pacify the movement, which at that stage was calling for the president’s resignation.
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The same pattern can be seen in the #EndBadGovernance protests that erupted in Nigeria from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10, 2024. Similar to the #EndSARS protests that were provoked by police brutality in 2020, the #EndBadGovernance protest against fuel subsidy removal, hunger and hardship could be described as a digitally organized revolt. It originated from a call on Twitter and TikTok in June 2024 for Nigerians to consider shutting down the country for 10 days in August. The call came as the anti-finance bill protest in Kenya was unfolding. As a result, it resonated with many young Nigerians who were frustrated with the cost-of-living crisis.
“Nigerians felt they have had enough from a government that cares so little about them and is more interested about how to enrich big business men and other members of the ruling class,” said Adaramoye Micheal, one of the organizers who is now standing trial for treason.
As the weeks rolled by, this call began to gain traction as people commented and engaged with the call on social media. By the first week of July, the government, which had managed to avoid any significant opposition since it came to power in May 2023, could no longer ignore the unfolding situation. Then came the threats and intimidation from the government, ruling party officials and thugs, the police and the army, but all these only stiffened the resolve of young people to go ahead.
Decentralized and ‘leaderless’
In both Kenya and Nigeria, the Gen Z uprisings broke out in an atmosphere of political stasis where the old traditional forces of struggle, like trade unions and political opposition parties, had either retreated from the frontlines or been discredited by their politics.
For example, the movement in Kenya erupted outside of the influence of the country’s political opposition, because its collaborationist politics don’t sit well with young people, who desire a clean break with the status quo. In the case of Nigeria, the protest erupted after the youth had watched in frustration as the country’s powerful trade unions dragged their feet for over one year without fighting back against Tinubu’s neoliberal reforms. As early as June 2023, the country’s leading trade union federation, the Nigeria Labor Congress, called a general strike against Tinubu’s inauguration day declaration that he would remove a crucial oil subsidy, but the union soon backtracked and called it off.
Therefore, the Gen Z uprising unfolded in a context defined by a deep mistrust of leadership, hence the decentralized nature of these movements and their lack of formal coordinating structures. Instead, local volunteers, often made up of inexperienced but impassioned youth, were the heartbeat of the protests both in Nigeria and Kenya. They played the most important roles at the community levels: determining how daily protests were organized and funds were raised to print leaflets, placards, banners and provide other logistics. They also mobilized legal and medical aid to support protesters when they were arrested or injured.
“No single leader meant no easy target for the state,” Npap added. “That is how we managed to survive amidst the attacks of the police and state-sponsored goonism and terrorism, like what we witnessed recently including weaponization of rape and shoot-to-incapacitate orders.”
Rather than a handicap, the Gen Z protests’ decentralized leadership contributed to the movement’s resilience and its ability to re-emerge on the street in the face of repression. Lacking centralized leadership didn’t mean a lack of coordination. Experienced activists were always available to offer guidance.
The role of civil society organizations and socialist groups in strengthening these uprisings cannot be discounted, even though they are rarely acknowledged in the mainstream media. In Nigeria, young activists from the Democratic Socialist Movement, Youth Rights Campaign, Joint Action Front, the Take it Back movement and several other civic groups played important roles in several cities in providing coordination for the struggle.
In Kenya, several civic groups and activists, including the Kongamano La Mapinduzi and Revolutionary Socialist League, among others, also played important roles. Apart from immersing themselves in organizing tasks, the role of socialists and activists in the movement was, according to Npap, to “provide ideological understanding for the uprising.”
“Political education equips the recipients with the tools to effectively analyze their society and form their own conclusions on what is working and what is not, and who or what is responsible for what is not working” added Mwalimu Mitemi wa Kiama, an activist and member of Kongamano La Mapinduzi. Political education equips Gen Z “with the agency, as active citizens, to try and find solutions as well as plan and execute civic or political actions that will address what they perceive as needs fixing.”
Resilience
Another significant attribute of the Gen Z uprising is its remarkable resilience. One year after they erupted, these movements remain strong despite the inexperience of the young organizers and scale of state repression they have suffered.
At least 23 protesters were killed during the protest in Kenya last year. Yet this didn’t stop tens of thousands of young Kenyans from re-emerging on the street again this year on the anniversaries of the protests against the 2024 Finance Bill and the Saba Saba pro-democracy protest several decades ago.
“Since colonial times, the Kenyan state has used repression to silence the people quite effectively, but Gen Z is proving to be a different breed,” Kiama said. “The more the state represses them through abductions, extrajudicial murders and brutalization in the streets, the more the movement grows.”
The numbers in the streets on these movement anniversaries, on June 25 and July 7 this year, were unlike any seen in Kenya before, with protests in 27 counties. Thirty-one Kenyans have been shot dead by police over the months of June and July — with hundreds injured by bullets and batons, and hundreds arrested and charged with terrorism — but the people keep coming.
Although the momentum in Nigeria is much slower, the movement has exhibited a remarkable resilience despite the killing of over 20 protesters in what Amnesty International described as “Bloody August.”
“The repression by the security forces has emboldened the movement for more actions,” said Osugba Blessing, a 30-year-old female baker who participated in the protest. “I was part of the protesters harassed and beaten at the Lekki toll gate by the Nigeria police last year, but that has never stopped me from calling out the government for its anti-poor policies.”
Over the past year, the #EndBadGovernance protests have overcome their spontaneous origin. They have morphed…
