Muslim youth in East Africa

Dr. Hamdun I Sulayman:

Youth are facing unexpected
situations and contradictory
challenges that pose questions
which need appropriate answers
from a serious community or
political authority. Some are
global challenges related to
educational, social, economical,
political or religious that are
facing Muslim youth in the third
world in general and East African
countries in particular. The
relevance of these challenges
transpires from the context of
the social, cultural and religious
complexity in which young
people are actually growing up,
and significantly influences their
way of living. Add to that, political
changes and instability,
situations of hardship and
poverty, globalization and the
application of new technologies
in the field of information that
increasingly affect daily life and
the process of moral formation.
By nature, in the process of
development, prosperity of any
country or development of any
community is predicted from the
opportunities available for its
youth. It is from this premises,
heavy budgets are allocated for
training and capacity building of
the youth in many strategic plans
of the developing countries.
Youth development is largely
dependent on a combination of
moral, social and economic
activities associated with human
behaviour in solving their
problems of unlimited wants and
needs depending on available
resources. This combination is a
concern of all nations; developed
and underdeveloped, and it has
been a source of stability and
peace for their communities
since the memorial time. Youth
Muslims in all East African
countries, have left behind in
these three aspects compared
with other communities.
Youth development was the idea
of most African countries since
their struggle for their political
independences. It was lead by
most African leaders, among
them, Nkurumah, Abdul Naser,
Nyerere, and Mandela the
vanguards of African nationalism,
whom their cardinal objective
was to provide a good standard
of living to all people without any
discrimination based on religious
or ethnic groups, and to see the
economic power not
concentrated in the hands of a
few. However, the continent is
still afflicted with war, HIV/AIDS,
social, political and economical
challenges where youth is the
most vulnerable group. Most of
Africans do not satisfy their
wants, and in some parts people
do not satisfy even their basic
needs due to scarcity of
resources in the reach of their
hands. Muslims, the minority with
exception of Tanzania, are facing
different challenges, such as
scarcity in capitals and lack of
free usury economical
opportunities, unfocused
education, and corruption. All
these have impeded Muslim
youth from entering into the
mainstream of national and
international economic schemes,
as well as controlling their own
social system based on Islamic
values.