Idle minds' and 'empty stomachs

Youth, violence and religious diversity in coastal Kenya

Bibliographic Data

ID2103595
AuthorsErik Meinema (0009-0004-2930-7476, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume90
Issue5
Pages890-913
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0001972020000637
OpenAlexW3096847243
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited30

This article analyses how concerns about youth and violence intersect with the politics of managing religious coexistence in the coastal Kenyan town of Malindi. During extensive ethnographic research, I noticed that Muslim, Christian and 'Traditionalist' leaders, politicians and NGO officials often fear that the 'idleness' of young people leaves them susceptible to various immoralities, including political violence and 'violent extremism', that threaten peaceful ethnic and religious coexistence. The article explores how these concerns motivate leaders' attempts to incorporate youth in development and peace projects, and how youth respond to these interventions. These projects are funded by Western donors, who often see 'radical' religiosity, especially among Muslim youth, as a security threat. Yet, leaders in Malindi accommodate donor policies to the (coastal) Kenyan context, and tend to understand immoralities and violence as resulting from a lack of religiosity among youth. The article argues that perceptions of 'idle youth' as potentially violent threats to peaceful religious coexistence and morality allow leaders to develop a 'moral religiosity' that is shared across religious divides. However, the ways in which youth strategically resist or comply with interventions to pacify them demonstrate that they do not necessarily agree with dominant moral and political constellations

Context (archaeology · Criminology · Ethnic group · Geography · Kenya · Morality · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Psychological intervention · Religiosity · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development

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