Africa Today

This essay discusses the emergence in Zanzibar of generation as an identity in political discourse in the 1950s. "Youth" emerged in the early organization of the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) and were alone responsible for executing the 1964 Revolution. Afterward youth leaders voluntarily turned po-litical power over to their party elders. For over a decade thereafter, these elders considered the Revolution to be largely concerned with the state's attempt to discipline and control island youth. Political elites sought to capture their labor and loyalty through Youth League departments such as the Young Pioneers and youth camps. The importance of youth in this context suggests that scholars need to be aware of identities other than class or race when studying power relations in postcolonial Africa.