 My presentation will focus on new youth politics beyond street protests. Over the past few decades, young Africans have been at the forefront of major political movements across the continent. And in the process, battles have been worn and lost, alliances have been built and broken, and hopes have been raised and dashed. Most youth movements have been struggling to pair street interventions with more sustainable forms of political and policy engagement. In this brief presentation, I explore how some movements have been trying to mobilize and to act beyond street protests. The current landscape of African youth activism is multifaceted. Young people operate in student movements, voluntary cultural associations, civil society and community-based organizations, political parties and social movements. But despite their diversity, all these groups appear to share a common concern, a sense of deprivation and collective yearning for change. Both social movements initially spurred by bread-and-butter issues often morph into political grievances. Indeed, and as Auger pointed out, contemporary protest movements do not just contest problematic socioeconomic realities. They engage deeper political issues, including the interrogation of what society ought to be. The inability of African youth movements to sustain momentum beyond the street has been an issue. But it is important to note that participation in street protests is transient. New participants join in, some become disenchanted, and others are co-opted into the system while others are imprisoned or even killed and others continue with the struggle. Be that as it may, most young activists have generally avoided the structures and the political ideologies that turn protest movements into formal political parties. Many appear to reject the established political order based on hierarchical and authoritarian models of mobilization and participation. They refuse to enter the arena of multi-party politics and the pseudo-democracy espoused by the political elites. Most young activists agree that political parties operate in a restricted domain in which elite groups take turns to compete amongst themselves to control power, resources, and privileges. In opposition to the status quo, young African activists are constituting themselves into voluntary associations of individual citizens, bloggers, and community organizers based on decentralized, non-hierarchical approaches. These groups exhibit horizontal politics that break away from the vertical and exclusionary party politics. Congolese activist Fred Bauma from Lutpoglodevelopment or Lucha explains, and I quote, Our movement is informal and horizontal. We are a reaction to this type of politics. We are a critique to society, end quote. While horizontalism foregrounds the agency of youth and their capacity for creative engagement, its rhizomatic nature militates against the contention of political power within the existing vertical political structures. In this connection, many young activists have made clear that they have no desire to enter formal party politics. Rather, their goal is to dismantle the system and build something new from below. While some observers consider their politics suffused with idealism, I would suggest that we should not completely dismiss the potential of these actions towards change. And to a certain extent, this was evidenced in Tunisia when the young activists who led the 2011 uprisings decided not to contend for power at national level. Instead, they retracted into grassroots activism, operating in various civic and political associations. In 2018, during the municipal elections, over 50% of registered candidates in the local elections were under the age of 36, and many were elected mayors, general secretaries, and councillors. A survey conducted by Democracy International shows that elected municipal officials in Tunisia in 2018 were predominantly young, female, unmarried, unemployed, and with no prior government experience. Similarly, in Angola, young activists have been equally concerned with local government politics. They embraced the issue of the municipalities as central to their struggle, and they have converged into a national network called Movimento dos Jovens pelas autarquias, or Youth for Municipalities Movement. Currently, municipal officials in Angola are appointed, not elected. As Samusuko, a leader of Projeto Agir, or Project for Action, emphatically stated, and I quote, the president appoints the 18 provincial governors, and the governors appoint the 164 municipal administrators, who in turn appoint the 475 administrators of districts. The party in power has complete control at all levels, and that's why they don't want municipal elections, end quote. Young activists in Angola believe that they have better chances of affecting change at municipal level. According to Samusuko, and I quote, people respect us for what we do. They listen to us because we defend the interests of the community, end quote. These young activists understand that municipalities offer jobs that they can tap into, and an opportunity to enter politics at local level to affect change from the ground up. In Sudan, young activists created the resistance committees in formal grassroots networks at community level that involve a wide range of actors in local mobilization, civil disobedience campaigns, anti-corruption and community support, with actions like street cleaning, road work, school repairs, solidarity markets, etc. The combination of street demonstrations with the actions of the resistance committees has been instrumental in the revolutionary uprising. As the political process in Sudan continues to unfold, the resistance committees see themselves as the guardians of the revolution. Back in Tunisia, the victory of young leaders in the municipal elections paved the way to the election of Caius Said to the presidency in 2019. Large numbers of young Tunisians rallied behind Said, a professor of constitutional law, who never belonged to a political party and never held political office. Said offered a political agenda for government decentralization, which bypassed political parties as key players in the democratic process. Said proposed a bottom-up model through which parliamentarians would be chosen from elected local council officials, rather than from traditional party lists. His political agenda emphasizes the devolution of power and resources to municipalities. Said's proposal resonated with young people and supported their grassroots engagement. So far, Said's government has struggled to deliver on political reform and much-needed socioeconomic development. And young Tunisians continue to protest the slow pace of change. While some youths appear to remain steadfast behind Said, others are becoming increasingly disappointed with his inability to move forward. The present political situation in Tunisia clearly illustrates a struggle between old and new politics, between the aspirations of a younger generation yearning for political change and the ambitions of an older generation clinging to power. By engaging in local politics, young activists connect directly to citizens, linking their own grievances and aspirations to the broader needs of the marginalized. Through this experiment, they allow themselves to imagine new politics in the conditions of economic fragility, social deprivation, and restricted liberties. Beyond the street protests, they are creatively reconfiguring the values, ideals, and practices that will embody the new politics in the intersection of the fight for socioeconomic progress with civil liberties and political emancipation. Something new is clearly being articulated in young people's relentless repudiation of existing politics. Are grassroots politics the answer? Well, only time will tell, and thank you very much.