By ELSIE EYAKUZE

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Last week, I raised the issue of the contradictions of contemporary African ageism, and what my generation is supposed to do about it.

By the way, this thing of generations is a bit of an interesting concept considering we reproduce continuously and are therefore an ever present range from day-old people to centenarians. The distinction between childhood and adulthood created by puberty and ceremonial/religious conferring of adult status, makes sense though.

Following on this, we should either adopt a binary system and embrace it: You are either a child or an adult. Or we can adopt a more nuanced multi-layered system where you are a child, then a young adult with all of the rights of adulthood but understandably limited experience.

Middle adulthood would be like middle-management in a company: Overworked and underappreciated but getting everything done including reproducing and taking care of the elderly. Then older adulthood, which would be upper management.

And finally elderhood, which is like being a retired professor emeritus. You can work if you want, enjoy your second childhood and play if you want to, up to you, just as long as you gift society with whatever wisdom you have gained over the course of your lifetime.

In this light, how pragmatic is it that so-called African concepts of adulthood demand that an individual wait until they are close to retirement age?

In Tanzania, I think we cease being youth at 40 while the African Union Youth Charter says 35. These definitions have consequences for politics, policy and human aspiration.

A friend explained to me that for our African societies, the 50s is the perfect time for leadership. By then one’s youthful fires will have been damped down and pragmatism will guard against the extremes of radical idealism.

At the same time, it is an age at which an individual can act as a bridge between the elders who will deign to talk to her as an adult, and the youth who will apparently respect her as an authority figure.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? I cautiously agree with this proposition in so far as time has a way of smoothing the jagged edges of youthful inexperience, which is why middle-aged people don’t eat slugs or jump across skyscrapers on a dare. Neither do young women by the way, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Where things fall apart is the assumption that elders always have wisdom to offer, and that youth have an automatic setting that switches to respect when they are exposed to someone over the age of 49 – neither of which is dependably true.

Modern life doesn’t allow for these fictions to stand, and this is the sticking point. Nobody could have predicted the disruptions of technology and of globalisation to modern life. Africa is not unique: every society is grappling with this, selecting various ways of dealing.

And those societies that seem to have adapted to new circumstances with relative ease are the ones where youth – creative, daring, malleable youth – have been given not just opportunities to lead but a mandate to navigate the brave new worlds. And this has implications for politics, for policy.

So I ask again: Where are my contemporaries in leadership? They say don’t raise questions you haven’t thought of answers to yet. See you next week.

Elsie Eyakuze is a consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report. E-mail: [email protected]