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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'We're on the Run': Ideas of Progress among Adolescents in Rural Kenya
Author:Prazak, MiroslavaISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Journal of African Cultural Studies
Volume:12
Issue:1
Period:June
Pages:93-110
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:youth
modernization
Kuria
Development and Technology
Miscellaneous (i.e. Demography, Refugees, Sports)
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696819908717842
Abstract:This article examines the language and concepts used by Kuria adolescents to describe differences between life in the past and life today, and the extent to which the aspirations and expectations of young people today are continuous or discontinuous with those of the past. The article is based on a survey carried out in the late 1980s in Bwirege, Kuria District, Kenya, among Standard VIII students, 106 boys and 26 girls. The students were asked to write an essay on the topic 'In what way is your life different from that of your grandparents?'. The essays show that Kuria adolescents see progress as central to their lives. By and large, they do not wish to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. However, the modern/traditional dichotomy that the students present disguises the fact that, much as their grandparents did, they live their lives by negotiating within the constraints of their structural positions and personal abilities, and that, though seeing themselves as the vanguard of modernity, they are nonetheless unwilling to accept a version that is not wrought in the local circumstances. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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