Welcome to the President's Inbox. I'm Jim Lindsay, the Marion David Boy's

Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is Africa's Urban Revolution.

With me to discuss what urbanization, a youth-heavy population in social media mean for politics across the African continent is Michelle Gavin. Michelle is the Ralph Bunch Senior

Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at CFR. From 2011 to 2014, she served simultaneously as

the U.S. ambassador to Botswana and the U.S. representative to the Southern African development

community. Before that, she was a special assistant to President Barack Obama and the Senior

Director for Africa on the staff of the National Security Council.

Michelle is the author of a new book, Age of Change, How Urban Youth Are Transforming African Politics.

Michelle, thank you for coming on the president's inbox.

Thanks so much for having me.

So first off, Michelle, congratulations on the publication of Age of Change. Before we dive into what you argue in the book, I want to let listeners know how they can win a free copy. To do so, please go to cfr.org slash giveaway. Let me repeat that, cfr.org slash giveaway. There you can read the terms and conditions for the giveaway and

register your entry. We will accept entries until September 23. After that, we will select 10

names at random to receive a free copy of Age of Change. If you are still searching for a pen to

write down this information, don't worry.

We have posted the link to the giveaway and the show notes for the presence inbox on cfr.org.

With those logistics out of the way, Michelle, let's talk about Africa, urbanization, and the political

impact of young people.

Perhaps we can start with you briefly summarizing the argument you make in the age of change.

Well, the big idea of the book is that these youthful demographics and the urbanization and the rapidly approaching or recently past expiration date of some old political narratives

are all combining to create this really insatiable demand for political change all across the region

in states that have very different political economies, very diverse societies.

...