By Williams Abobo.
In almost every African society, respect for the elderly seems to be an entrenched provision in the socio-behavioral code observed by that particular society. So before Moses wrote down the Ten Commandments enjoining the Israelites to respect their parents and by extension, the elderly, in order to have long life, Africans already knew of respect for the elderly. Respect for the elderly is so strong in Africa that it sometimes seem as though Africa is practicing gerontolatry—the worship of the elderly. It has been promoted by a set of dogma and mythologies; completely inimical to youth involvement in leadership at all levels of the African social strata.
A recurring myth in the philosophy of gerontocracy is that the older one gets, the wiser he/she becomes. In most paintings I have seen of God, His hair and beard are completely grey. I can only guess that the intension is to give Him the wise, peaceful and calm looks associated with the elderly class. On the other hand, Satan is depicted as a youth overflowing with destructive power. Ironically, when these same painters portray a person like King Solomon or Noah in the bible, they always have grey beard and hair. Meanwhile Satan according to the belief of most religions lived long before Solomon and Noah; and is still living. So who is supposed to be painted with grey hair and beard? Applying simple logical reasoning, I should think that Satan must also have grey beard and hair. The question that I ask myself when I see such paintings is: is it not possible to have a destructive, diabolical thinking, and a hopelessly ineffective elderly person?
I think that there are examples of such people in every society. Yes, the expectation is that the older one is, the wiser he/she must be. But it will be unrealistic for anyone to assign a positive truth value to any proposition which seeks to establish a direct link between age and wisdom. The point about gerontocracy is that age increases every year so once a leader is selected because of his age and associated wisdom, he/she is inclined to rule for life. The assumption is that he/she becomes wiser and more experienced every year which makes him the best person to rule. Omar Bongo of Gabon was one of the African leaders in this group. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has also fought courageously to keep himself in power. Museveni of Uganda, another gerontocrat has remained in power since 1986. The list may be too long for me to exhaust.
Another recurring myth in the philosophy of gerontocracy is the fallacy that the judgment of the elderly is always right. It is considered disrespectful for a youth to challenge the judgment of an elderly person. As a youth, the society expects you to be “religiously obedient” to everyone older than you regardless of the fact the judgments of the elderly may be out of favor relative to the peculiar challenges of the following generation. Therefore when the older generation forces its interests on the younger generation, the latter will be compelled to abandon its interests, leave its peculiar challenges unattended to and follow an established pattern of life prescribed by the former. I doubt if any society can ever grow in such a situation! In many African countries political leaders make choices on who they will like to succeed them. Often, supporters of political leaders accept the succession choice thus made by their leaders leading to, what I prefer to describe as a neo-dynastic political system. In Nigeria, outgoing president Obasanjo choice of who should succeed him was granted, at least by official account. Soon after the death of Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, worshippers of the gerontocratic cult quickly predicted what the leader would have done if he knew he was going to die soon. Their conclusion was that the dead leader’s son, Faure Eyadema, should be made the president. A similar situation took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I have come to the conclusion, that for Africa to grow, one crucial thing to do is to revise, demystify and ease the obsession with age when it comes to electing people into political leadership. Merit-based rule is what is needed--one that allows people to become leaders based on their overriding merits rather than how old they may be. Under merit-based rule, the youth, interested in political leadership will have the opportunity of bringing into political administration, new ideas, creativity, exuberance and an unstoppable hope to succeed. This is what I call youth revolutionarism. Competent and self confident youth will be able to challenge the neo-dynastic political leaders into justifying their stay in office on merit or relinquish power if they lack merit. Under youth revolutionarism, gerontocrats will not be assumed to be wise; they will demonstrate it. Their judgments will not be assumed to be right; they will prove it. That is the only way the youth will be emboldened to venture into political leadership knowing that it is competence which matters but not old age.
7 comments:
I must commend you for this thought provoking article. In much as it adds an impetus to the clarion call for the youth in Africa to form the cornerstone and to be involved in decision making, it leaves in its wake misconceptions which need to be cleared up. Why I am I saying this? This is because your article travels between two disparate time periods in African history, the distinction of which will help the reader appreciate the issues raised. I could sense the extent of your disappointment and disenchantment with ‘corporate’ Africa. A once profitable growing entity, full of hope for its stakeholders, now turned to a “man-child” by the very people who claim to hold it dear to their heart.
First is the need to separate post-colonial African societal values from her pre-colonial societal and cultural values. The former is an aberration of the later. This is needed because your article expanses these two time periods…your references to words like myth…the analogy you drew between the Mosaic laws and the African respect for the elderly and post colonial leadership crisis. So the question I would like to ask is that was gerontocracy the order of the day in pre-colonial Africa? Was the elderly entrusted with political authority by the mere virtue of his/her age? Were the political excesses of the elderly punished? Space constraint will not permit me to elaborate on these salient issues which must be addressed before any direct linkage can be drawn between those time periods. The African story is not linear; it is embedded in trajectories which must be explained succinctly so as to make people appreciate the story of the past but not only the present. This is not a case of romanticization of the African past. The question one will hastily ask is for how long will Africa live in her past glories? Not forever, yes it’s true. But this is needed to avoid what Adichie calls the ‘dangers of a single story’.
One misconception your article sought to portray is a direct link between the entrenchment of despotic leaders and the socio-cultural stratification of the African society. Elders occupy an important position in society not necessarily due to the mere numbers of their age but by the very things they have seen and experienced which we (youth) have not seen and experienced. Members of council of elders in traditional African societies were/ are nominated not only on age but also on what the person can or has been doing for the community. It was easy for any youth who distinguish him/herself to rise to occupy important position in the state council. In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkwo rose to dine with the elders based on his distinguish service to his motherland. Though a work of fiction it is a reflection of the social and cultural systems of the Igbo people. There is a popular adage that “if a child washes his hands well he dines with the elders” attest to this point. Popular African maxims such as “one head does not go counsel”, “wisdom is not in the head of one person”, “we send the wise but not the long-legged” among others attest to the principle of meritocracy which has been part of traditional African socio-cultural values. With this you can see that elders alone were not the repository of knowledge and wisdom but any person who showed forth knowledge and wisdom in acts of virtue was given a place in the general body politics
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Among the justifications usually advanced by the leaders you mentioned in your article is that their despotic regimes are semblances of the pre-colonial African political systems and governance. This has been proven false by the works of African nationalist historians, philosophers and sociologists. These folks are who they are not because they are propped up by traditional African socio-cultural values but by their clientelist politics deep rooted in ethnicity and regionalism. Therefore followers of Euro-centric historical scholarship sort to link the emergence of one party system in post colonial Africa to her indigenous political systems, by extension her socio-cultural values. The emergence of these systems which your article referred to is well explained by Frank Fanon in his book “The Wretched of the Earth”. A pitfall in the political and national consciousness in post colonial African state he calls it. Not only do these despots use set of cultural repertoires and but also powerfully evocative socio-cultural concepts which make one get the impression they are “African”. It's been proven by scholars elsewhere that it is rather the abandonment of these socio-cultural values that has led to bad governance on the continent.
It’s true that the youth should be allowed a role to play in the African political space, and that leadership in post colonial Africa be based on merit, this could have been captured and well articulated without the resort to the analogies you used in your article. They tend to portray single, linear deterministic relationships which in my humble opinion don’t hold.
An interesting debate. Maybe Bokamoso can organize a gathering around this. Just my thought from faraway. And note I'll be in Athens next week. Hope to see you all and talk about the CAN
Ayuba, I think you may contradicting yourself...your saying that it's important for the youth to be involved, but they have to prove themselves which will be hard to do since they haven't seen or experienced what their elders have. But haven't today's youth experienced a great deal due to opportunities in this day and age such as many who were afforded opportunites here at OU by being able to study abroad and experience a variety of cultures through eachother and their host country? Isn't this something that allows you to have "seen and experienced" what the elders have not seen and experienced? One of the hopes of many is that these experiences will be taken back with people (many who may be considered "youth") and that these experiences will then be used and shared within their individual societies and eventually governments. One of the greatest aspects of wisdom is knowing when to step down and let another take your place. Another is listening to those around you, regardless of age. But how often does this actually happen? Abobo has a good point when he talks of those who are a part of "the old boys club" within African politics. How can what the youth experience and see be used effectively whether on a local or national level if they are not listened to until they are considered elders? I agree with Abobo and while you may make sense in a way, you too are mixing time periods when you bring in "Things Fall Apart" since I'm pretty sure that wasn't set in today's time.
When I talk of elders seeing and experiencing what we have not seen I
by that means that respect for the elderly is not based on something
mythical but something real. i contextualize this in a typical
traditional setting. I set that example to illustrate the point that
though our elders are revered, it doesn't negate the point that if any
youth (the person who have been to OU) has something to share , he is
not going to be heard....There are avenues through which this is done.
You write "How can what the youth experience and see be used
effectively whether on a local or national level if they are not
listened to until they are considered elders"?.......This is not only
fallacious but a hastily generalized statement. I showed in my earlier
response that avenues had always been in place for the youth to be
heard to in that traditional setting Abobo's article contextualizes
respect for the elderly. If this is happening in post colonial
politics, you cannot by extension say that it is a s result of "too
much" respect for the elderly. This phenomenon can be explained
without drawing this simplistic relationship. This highly
unscientific. We have to be careful being victims of a single story.
Now if you understand what the situation was before the advent of
colonial and post-colonial eras then you will appreciate the fact that
what is currently happening in our political landscape has no
"traditional" basis. You cannot link "the old boys club" within
African politics as you call it to traditional African social value of
respect for the elderly. It just like saying that one-party state
system is common in Africa because Africa did not have a democratic
system before the advent of colonial rule.
"The old boys club" within African politics can be explained with a
thousand and one reasons other than saying that ooh its is too much
respect for the elderly in Africa....
The article is good and timely as I stated in my earlier response but
I think the issues can be advanced effectively from the other side.
Ayuba, I think that your comments can easily pass for an interesting
second article rather than a critique of my article.I have noted your
comments as well as the ongoing debate on what I wrote.You are
provided interesting arguments which will ultimately promote youth
participation in the politics of Africa. To understand my article
well, you must look at the title very closely and figure out how
successfully or unsuccessfully I dealt with the subject. In academics
we know that one cannot wrote on everything which falls into the areas
he/she is looking at and that is why we work by topics. The topic will
frame and define what the writers intends to talk about and it also
gives hints on the underlying assumptions, philosophies, etc based
upon which the pieces is written.My article proposed a greater
involvement of the youth in African political leadership because they
hold the key to the future and also because our current leaaders have
been disappointing. I admit that my article is not based on any
mainstream political philosophy; and that is not what I intinded to
do. I hinged the article on a cultural metaphor--what does the elderly
class stand for? In other words, what are some of the qualities
asscribed to the elderly class by the society? Does the African
culture not frown on a younger person challenging an elderly person?
Ayuba, in your entire life, have you not had the experience of
declining a confrontation with an elderly person eventhough you were
convinced that you had a good reason to initiate a confrontation? That
is the cultural background to my article.I asked myself this simple
question:how come the youth is not that much involved in politics and
even the few that are in politics find it difficult to rise to top
level political leadership? Having established the bases and defined
the parameters of my article, I brought in the idea of a youth
revolution. Every revolution is expected to over turn an existing
system which the revolutionaries see as a hinderance to a specified
goal. So the system I decided to look at was the culture of "religious
submission" to the elderly which is strong in most African cultures. I
see it as probably one of the reasons why the youth may be hesitant to
challenge the older politicians when it comes to political leadership.
I think you stretched the article well beyond its expressed province
and made comments on what I did not cover because I decided to narrow
the scope of my article. You have made valid points but I think with
all humility that they are tangtential to the content of my article. I
cannot understand the reference you made to Fanon. I think that they
are incantations drawing superficial authenticity to your critique.
You talked about the use of clientelism as a perpetuating tool. That
is the more reason why my article should be relevant to the discourse
on African leadership challenge. Take one country and determine what
percentage of the population fall within a particular political
party's or individual's network of clientele. The vast majority of
people in African countries are not even registered memberes of any of
the political parties in their country. My ideas about youth
revolution is based on the strong conviction that we as African cannot
allow few people who are members of a political party's or leader's
clientele to appropriate the entire continent. It is the will of the
majority which should prevail: Is that not the operating principle in
democracy?
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My idea about youth revolutionarism is intended to tell the
youth that if you have decided to keep mute over the leadership
situation in Africa because of the cultural barrier encoded in
gerontology, then you have to reorient your mind and break free from
those cultural limitations. My reference to people like Mugabe and
Museveni is to asked a subtle question: why is the youth not rising up
to the task by offering compelling alternatives which will counter all
those tested and in many cases, failed policies of the government.
Very often what incombent presidents use as part of campaign
propaganda is that they have been in office for long and they are
supposed to the custodians of all the skills and experience needed to
govern. How can the youth counter such propaganda? This led me to the
idea of meritocracy. If you read my article carefully, you would have
realized that I am very particular on merit. I did not try to suggest
that because one is a youth, he/she should take over political
leadership. What I soughtt to suggest is thatt our current old leaders
have failed us and thatt is an obvious fact. I will not be able to
comment on all the points that you raised but I am hopeful that I have
explained my ideas in fair detail for you to understand my article
better.
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