Key Moments in Life: Elderhood |
Elderhood |
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Many African societies are gerontocracies where authority is held by elders of the group. As a person becomes older he or she can exercise greater influence over the life of the community. Elders cease to have the day-to-day concerns for the health and well being of their children, who are now grown with children of their own. They are instead more concerned with the health and well-being of the lineage and community. Elders are respected because they have accumulated knowledge, and are able to exercise the power that is associated with knowledge of the natural and supernatural worlds. They are respected because they will soon be ancestors, and will have powerful control over the well-being of the living they leave behind. Elders have risen to the highest levels of the voluntary associations that characterize many African peoples. These staffs were owned by elders of the Yoruba Ogboni association, which held power that balanced that of the chief. |
edan Ogboni, Ogboni Association staffs |
Yoruba people,
Nigeria |
Elderhood |
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Among several peoples in Burkina Faso and elsewhere in Africa there is no centralized system of political authority that might be associated with the words "chief" or "ruler". Instead power lies in the hands of a council of the senior members of each of the families in the community. Although the members of these councils are usually male, they may include senior women who have passed the childbearing years. The most senior of the council members is the elder of the lineage that first settled the village, the first inhabitants of the land. Because each of the families' interests are represented by one or more elders the system is quite democratic. In this region the laws that bind the community together are communicated visually by geometric patterns that are carved and painted on masks. This mask from the Bwa people in Burkina Faso is a visual signboard of the laws that govern the community.
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Mask, nwantantay |
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Elderhood |
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Among the visible signs of the respect that is accorded to elders are the canes they often carry and that serve as metaphors for the power they wield. Such canes have even been appropriated by contemporary political leaders such as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire as symbols of power. The Pende cane was passed among those who gathered to debate important issues, and only the person who held the cane had the right to speak.Elders are responsible for passing on their knowledge to the next generation and so they are shown respect by those who stand to profit from this privileged knowledge. They are the possessors of the secrets of the group that are the keys to the survival of the next generation. |
Staff |
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Elderhood |
