The Sacrificed Generation_ Youth, History, and the Colonized Mind in Madagascar

Youth and identity politics figure prominently in this provocative study of personal and collective memory in Madagascar. A deeply nuanced ethnography of historical consciousness, it challenges many cross-cultural investigations of children, for its key actors are not adults but school youth. Lesley Sharp refutes dominant assumptions that African children are the helpless victims of postcolonial crises, incapable of organized, sustainable collective thought or action. She insists instead on their political agency.