YOUTH & DEMOCRACY: Namibian youth, democracy and politics: An overview

This paper will look at specific trends regarding participation of Namibia’s youth in the political processes of the country.

The role of the youth in any country’s politics is a contentious issue that often revolves around negative and extreme scenarios. 

This paper will look at specific trends regarding participation of Namibia’s youth in the political processes of the country. It will start by reviewing definitions of the term “youth” before moving on to present some key characteristics of the Namibian youth. The study will discuss Namibian youth’s attitudes toward democracy before examining their political participation and civic action. The last section will interrogate youth’s media usage before concluding and putting forward recommendations that will promote youth participation in the national agenda through mass media.

This publication is a contribution by the Namibia Media Trust to the ongoing work of promoting youth participation in civic matters. It forms part of our youth development programme, the YouthQuake Namibia, designed to create a safe space for young people to develop greater understanding and skills to become agents of change – on a personal and societal level.

The paper was authored and the data analysed by Survey Warehouse founder & researcher Christiaan Keulder.

The bulk of the data for the paper is drawn from eight rounds of the Afrobarometer survey conducted between 1999 and 2019.