African youth makes a takeover bid

UNESCO Courier, Jan, 1999 by Codou Bop

The upheavals that have rocked African societies in the past half-century have undermined the elders' traditional power base

In Africa gerontocracy is dying. The traditional political, social and economic order dominated by the elders seems doomed to extinction.

The elders exercised - and still do, though to a much lesser extent - authority in the context of a rural, clan-based society where technical, social and religious knowledge was acquired during a long process. Traditionally, the oldest family member managed the land, the main productive resource. He divided it up, distributed the revenues and decided how unconsumed products should be used. Management of agricultural surpluses gave rise to the main source of his power. He received and gave girls in marriage, since he alone was able to provide them with a dowry. The younger males were thus dependent on him when they took a wife. Marriage was a decisive step towards social promotion and claiming a birthright. An elder could use his wealth to increase the number of his wives and strengthen his social ties.

The elder's power also had a political and religious basis. He presided over the village's destiny by taking part in the council of elders and administering the ancestor cult. As a member of secret organizations he helped enforce respect for the social order and sanctioned anyone who broke the rules. The elder was the master, even though he consulted the younger members of the community, especially on family matters. He was treated with deep respect. Young people and women adopted a submissive attitude towards him.

When individualism erodes clan structures

Most African societies are patrilineal, and women and children live with the husband's family. Women had an inferior social status. They acquired influence with the onset of menopause, which brought their condition closer to that of the men, but never obtained the right to represent or head the family. Even after reaching an advanced age, they were barred from taking part in official decision-making and enjoyed no economic or social power. At best, they wielded their authority in the private arena, especially over their daughters-in-law.

In the recent past a series of events and developments have enabled youth to supplant their elders. Colonization, the arrival of Christianity and Islam and the implementation and subsequent spread of the market economy and the wage-earning system have placed more emphasis on the individual than the clan and taken a toll on traditional structures. But the decisive factors in the emancipation of young people have been education and urbanization.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the small minority admitted to Western universities played a key role in transforming African societies and ousting their elders from positions of power. Western education discredited the wisdom of the elders. Now, "those who know" are those who have gone to school and are, therefore, young. Their studies, which they pursue in town, enable them to escape from the elders' control.

During the colonial period, primary schools, missions and colleges of education helped train a group of young, skilled, "educated" Africans including teachers, civil servants and health workers. Some turned away from their fellow Africans and African values, while others grew aware of colonial oppression and became close to the working class forming in the cities. They were in the vanguard of political and labour struggles as well as the battle for independence. Most of the earliest African heads of state were young. But by clinging to power until an advanced age, some have lent credence to the idea that the African gerontocracy has not had its last word.

The spread of Western values

The overall development of African society nevertheless continues to undermine the gerontocracy's foundations. Urbanization has dealt a blow to an essentially rural-based political organization. In the 1940s, economic activities began shifting towards the cities. Young people are the most mobile group, capable of adapting to city life, to new technology and to modern forms of work. They are also more receptive to the spread of Western values, conveyed by the school system, the administration and the media. Granted, young city-dwellers are still attached to the villages where they were born. But by living far from their communities, they are gradually adopting new lifestyles and becoming self-sufficient. A more individualistic society is taking shape in which the relationships of domination and allegiance between young people and the old generations are dying out. Any young man who can afford to can now get married. Even in the countryside, which is intensifying its exchanges with the cities, these developments are having an effect.

But on two counts change is coming slower. First, gender inequality persists and women, including in the cities, are still subject to the goodwill of the men in their families. Second, most young Africans remain dependent on the group because of low urbanization and school attendance rates, unemployment and poverty. The question of whether they will be able to take over the reins from their parents is posed today in dramatic terms.