It all started with tragedy in Morocco this past August, when eight women died in childbirth at Hassan II Hospital in Agadir. The news sent shockwaves through the country, crystallizing national anger over deteriorating public services, systemic failures in the health care system, as well as persistent high unemployment, corruption, and the perception that public resources serve elites rather than ordinary citizens. Years of frustration erupted into the streets as thousands of mostly young Moroccans gathered in cities and towns across the nation to demand better health care, education, and opportunities. Their demands, however, reflect a deeper call for accountability and institutional reform.
Behind Morocco’s recent mass protests was the online collective known as GenZ212. Born on the instant messaging social platform Discord and shaped by digital culture and social media, the leaderless, horizontal collective successfully mobilized and coordinated thousands of people to take to the streets.
The government’s response vacillated between control and concession. On the one hand, authorities met the protests with repression, which included reports of police violence and the arrest of thousands. The judicial proceedings that followed were criticized by human rights organizations for allegedly violating fair trial standards and handing down overly harsh sentences. On the other hand, the government announced significant reforms, pledging to allocate an additional USD 15 billion to health and education and to create 27,000 public sector jobs.
What happened in Morocco is not an isolated case. Over the past months, Gen Z-led protest movements have rippled across the continent and the globe. Many of these movements adopted the Jolly Roger flag popularized by the Japanese manga series “One Piece” as a symbol of resistance to injustice, inequality, exclusion, and corruption. Despite differing socio-political environments, the core messages of these youth-led movements are strikingly similar: transparency, equity, and dignity. They signal a rupture with systems perceived as corrupt and unresponsive, and they express a demand for justice in contexts where institutions fail to deliver basic necessities.
In Madagascar, protests started over water and electricity shortages and ended with the fall of President Rajoelina when the army sided with demonstrators. In Kenya, protests against tax hikes and police brutality turned deadly, but also forced the government to suspend its plans and to open dialogue. This is an imperfect yet telling example that listening can prevent escalation.
These protest movements are no accident. They express the younger generation’s demands to be part of decision-making processes and that policies serve the people. The concessions that have resulted in some cases raise a crucial question: are young people genuinely shaping the agenda, or are governing elites merely trying to pacify the streets? For Morocco, and for Africa more broadly, the answer will determine whether these movements become catalysts for democratic renewal or precursors to deeper instability.
For the most part, these movements are also rooted in unresolved legacies of conflict or repression and grave human rights violations. In Morocco, the government established the Equity and Reconciliation Commission in 2004 to deal with past abuses mainly related to state violence and social and economic exclusion. While the commission represented an important step toward truth and justice, its recommendations were not fully implemented, and the country’s structural inequalities remained largely unaddressed. These unhealed wounds continue to fuel public frustration, and young people have inherited problems they did not create.
By integrating social and economic rights and reforms, transitional justice mechanisms can offer material solutions to structural inequalities and lay the foundation for societal transformation. Ignoring these underlying dynamics risks perpetuating instability and deepening the disconnect between citizens and institutions.
This contagion among youth is underway. After Morocco, Madagascar, and Kenya, these Gen Z-led protest movements will keep spreading, especially in places where young people are inheriting conflicts they did not create, impunity is the norm, and economic disparities have widened. The real question now is not whether youth will rise, but whether their voices will be heard and how states choose to respond. Youth everywhere are refusing to remain spectators in society. They are not only demanding justice for the past, but they are also seeking to build a more just and equitable future, and it seems they are willing to do it themselves if they have to.
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PHOTO: Young people demonstrate in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on October 9, 2025. (Mounir Neddi/Wikimedia Commons)
