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Much has been written about South Africa's 'lost generation' - the generation of politicised youth who dedicated their lives to the liberation of a nation, and who 'lost' everything in the process. Young Warriors is about this generation, but it is also a critique of the very concept 'lost generation'. While focussing on the lives of the men and women who lived in Diepkloof, a black township in South Africa, it is a narrative of many young black South Africans who 'grew up' in the organisations of the ANC-led liberation movement. It is also the story of activists who became leaders, provincial premiers and national ministers in our democratic society. Through extensive interviews and time spent in Diepkloof, Monique Marks documents the tales of a group of Charterist youth during the mid-eighties to early nineties. During this period participating in the Carterist youth movement fundamentally shaped these individuals' lives and the future of their society. Marks revisits their lives at the beginning of the third millennium in a new democratic South Africa characterised by a radical decline in this social movement.
MONIQUE MARKS is a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Natal, Durban.
Other articles dealing with a similar subject - street gangs, township rebellion and a survey of living conditions.
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