Paper short abstract:

Zimbabwe’s decades of economic decline have narrowed employment opportunities for young people. African youths are presented in literature as being stuck in waithood. Despite their “invisibilisation”, Harare’s youths are active participants, deploying their agency through “Kungwavha-ngwavha”.

Paper long abstract:

Zimbabwe’s recent decades of economic decline, high records of inflation and unemployment, have narrowed formal employment opportunities for young people. The Covid-19 pandemic has also worsened the plight of young people who have not attained social markers of adulthood, such as getting a job or getting married. Considering mobility as maturation or transitioning to a desired state, African youths have been presented as being stuck in waithood. However, despite the seeming “invisibilisation” of the youths by a plethora of socio-economic factors, majority of Harare’s urban youths have reinvented transformative survival tactics through “Kungwavha-ngwavha”. Kungwavha-Ngwavha a joint of cleverness and crooking shows that urban youths in Harare are not passive recipients of their reality but active respondents displaying unique copying mechanisms. Whether it is unapproved selling of drugs, illegal food vending or foreign currency deals, the youths always find their way on the street to make a living. There is a discrepancy between legitimate means of obtaining a goal or decent living in Harare and daily youth practices. The agency of the youth at any level shows that, they are not only waiting for a better tomorrow but are active participants during the waithood periods. While the government, local authorities and churches can be viewed as structures which provide sets of rules for the youths to follow. For instance, Zimbabwe being largely a Christian nation has provisions on how young people should enter marriage, yet on the other hand marriage through elopement is a new normal.