Researcher Alcinda Hondwana has discussed “waithood”, a prolonged period of suspension between childhood and adulthood. Hondwana used Tunisia as her point of departure, but since the concept was launched it has been debated if it is useful also for other localities?
BBC came to Ghana to carry out interviews with youth experiencing “waithood” and my student Kwabena Ankrah was one of them!
It is a serious problem when the potential of youth is not harnessed. However, in the program it is suggested that 95% of Ghanaian youth are not happy in Ghana, that the stability of our democracy is threatened by corruption, and that youth aspirations are unattainable…In my research on student migration aspirations, I have tried to nuance the discourse by focusing on a particular group, university students. They are also Ghanaian youth, and have a more positive outlook, and its a group that is steadily growing!
Ankrah typically for a university student, sees opportunity in the many problems: “People get businesses because there are problems! If there are no problems, there are no businesses!”
Listen to the program that takes you to the Centre for Migration Studies, the slum that is known as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the dream of education and possibly migration…