Abstract
It is well-known that contemporary African youth struggle to attain adulthood, associated with a middle-class status. However, less often discussed are the mechanisms by which that marginality is produced. In particular, I argue that the changing role of the state in relation to the middle class affects young people’s precarity. I explore a healthcare certificate offered by private schools in Accra, Ghana as an example of those changing relations. Based on ethnographic research in a healthcare assistant school and the private healthcare market, and longitudinal research with the graduates of the school, I use Bourdieu to analyse the contradictory, confusing role that education plays in contemporary Accra in generating enchantment among young people for an adulthood that proves elusive.