Youth Radicalization and the Politics of Grievance

Efforts to prevent youth radicalisation in Africa have long been hampered by a fundamental misdiagnosis of the phenomenon. The dominant policy framework — which treats radicalisation primarily as an ideological problem susceptible to counter-narrative interventions — fails to account for the material and social grievances that make radical movements appealing to young people in the first place. This research paper challenges that framework, drawing on primary data from Nigeria, Mali, and Mozambique.

Our research involved life history interviews with 180 young people aged 18–35: 60 who had been involved in radical movements and subsequently disengaged, 60 currently at risk according to local community informants, and 60 who had not engaged despite exposure to recruitment. The comparative analysis reveals that ideology is rarely the primary driver of initial engagement. Rather, young people are drawn to radical movements by their ability to provide belonging, economic opportunity, protection, and a sense of agency — things that formal society has failed to deliver.

The findings have immediate implications for prevention programming. Interventions focused exclusively on counter-narrative content or religious re-education miss the structural drivers of recruitment. More effective programmes address the underlying conditions of exclusion: youth unemployment, marginalisation from local governance, absence of protection from state violence, and lack of formal economic opportunity. Where these conditions have been addressed holistically, disengagement rates are significantly higher and recidivism significantly lower.

This paper calls for a fundamental reorientation of the prevention industry: from messaging campaigns to structural investment; from ideological de-programming to social and economic reintegration; and from national security frameworks to community-based, rights-respecting approaches. Young people who join radical movements are not primarily ideologues — they are people in search of what any person needs. Prevention policy must start there.