Editorial: What are we doing to our youth?

The violence that has engulfed Tanzania following its disputed election strikes at the heart of Africa’s conscience. This is Julius Nyerere’s land – once a sanctuary for liberation movements, a nation that sheltered those who dreamed of freedom across southern Africa. Today, it mourns hundreds of its own, victims of a system that has turned hope into anger. How can a mother do this to her children? Tanzania’s turmoil follows Kenya’s youth-led protests against rising taxes – two nations bound by frustration, not by progress.



Across the continent, young people are marching, shouting, sometimes dying – not because they despise their countries, but because they feel excluded.



Africa’s youth are its greatest inheritance, yet we have failed to listen to their fears or build economies that recognise their worth.



Political power has become self-serving, leadership defensive, and opportunity scarce. The question we must ask is simple: what are we doing to our youth? And where, in all this, are the voices of reason? Where is SADC? Where is the African Union? Their silence echoes as the continent’s young people cry out for dignity, justice and a future that belongs to them.