NJR - do not use this blurb in its raw form. This book examines the evolution of student activism in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the recent period of 'democratic transitions' in the 1990s. While it looks in detail at two case studies, Senegal and Zimbabwe, it discusses the widespread involvement of student activism in democratic struggles across contemporary Africa. The study is also an historical examination of the student-intelligentsia on the continent that played a crucial role in the independence struggles across much of the continent, leading and organising nationalist movements. The book makes a unique contribution to a neglected but vital area. It argues that through examining the evolution of student activism we can understand the processes of democratic struggle and change in Africa, and the development of grass-root activism. The research demonstrates how students shape and are shaped by national processes of political change and popular protest. Student protest in contemporary Africa reveals both the continuities and transformations in student activism in an era of austerity, crisis and poverty.