bbc africa article

Aspects of Age

The UN General Assembly is naming 1999 International Year of the Elderly. BBC World Service
Education had already decided to make Aspects of Age its next pan-world project, with 24
series in 21 languages to be broadcast from October 1998, just as the UN year is being
launched. The number of older citizens is increasing dramatically, growth that presents
societies worldwide with enormous problems and some new possibilities. BBC producers have
travelled widely to discover for listeners of all ages the impact of these changes.

Ruth Evans is making the series in English for listeners in Africa and writes here:

Ageing in Africa: the Youngest Continent

A few years ago a Tanzanian friend came to visit my home and was shocked to hear my 92-year old
neighbour lived entirely alone, with infrequent visits from her daughter and no family around to help her.
"This would never happen in Africa," he said. "Families always look after the elderly." Now, it seems,
things are changing fast.

Traditionally, Africa has respected the elderly, and large, extended families have provided guarantees for
old age that would be the envy of many isolated and lonely, old people in the western world. In Mali the
tree is seen as a symbol of old age, with deep spreading roots providing stability and leafy branches
giving shade against the ravages of the sun. The link between age and wisdom is revealed in many of
the traditional words used to describe an old man or woman, like "elder", or "he who knows", words
which reflect the respect and honour given to older people.

With rapid urbanisation and difficult economic circumstances in nearly all African countries, many
families now find it impossible to look after the elderly, even though they may want to. Extended family
structures are breaking down just at the point when the Continent will need them most.

Ageing is a process that creeps up on us all, whether in Africa, Asia, or the Americas. Between 1960 and 1980 the number of people living beyond 65 years increased by 63% worldwide. This demographic trend of more people living longer is set to explode early next century, with much of the increase taking place in the poorer nations of the world - those least able to cope with the problems of an ageing population.

A young Somali refugee, pictured here, in a dusty camp in eastern Ethiopia wears a T-shirt with an
interesting slogan: "I'm too young to be 60". It could easily be a slogan for the world's youngest
continent in the 21st Century. In some African countries more than half the population is under 15, but
the reality is that with improved life expectancy, many more of those young people will live to a ripe old
age.

Most Africans have not yet realised the extent of the problems ahead and are often surprised to hear
about it, but statistics show that traditional extended family support for old age is simply no longer
working for many people.

According to Dr Nana Apt of the Centre for Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, the
proportion of Africa's population living beyond 65 is currently, at 3%, the lowest of any world region. But
this is set to change dramatically by 2025. The number of the very old in Africa is also expected to grow
at a very fast rate, just at a time when the youthful nature of the Continent's population demands a large
share of already limited resources.

Few people outside formal employment have social security or pensions. Even in Ghana where there is
a well-established social security system, only 10% of the population is provided for. And with families
unable or unwilling to take on the burden of care, many elderly people are now totally destitute. In Addis
Ababa HelpAge International estimate there are more old people living on the streets than there are
children.

These demographic and social changes call for drastic action by both governments and individuals alike.
New policies and priorities will have to be drawn up as scarce resources will be stretched even further to
ensure that people are looked after from the cradle to the grave. Individuals will have to take greater
responsibility for planning for the future and not assume they will be able to rely on their children. Some
countries, like Zimbabwe, are even thinking the hitherto unthinkable and establishing old people's homes
- an entirely alien concept in many African societies.

In the remote Tanzanian district of Karagwe some old people saw the assistance being given to elderly
Rwandan refugees that had flooded into camps in the area and decided they must do something to help
their own elderly. SAWATA is a local non-government organisation set up to assist the vulnerable old
people in the district by providing them with locally made low-tech water tanks and cooking stoves so
they do not have to spend hours each day walking to collect water and wood. Legal advisers have been
trained to give advice to old people on any problems they may have, especially land disputes. It is an
example of simple, low-cost initiatives that can really help old people, many of whose children have
gone to work in Dar es Salaam and rarely get home.

HelpAge Ghana is so far the only national NGO dealing with problems of the elderly. Most of their work
is based in Accra, where they have established a day care centre to give old people somewhere to go
for company and to get a daily meal. They try to provide medical assistance where it is needed and
organise an "Adopt a Granny" volunteer scheme to visit people in their homes. Simon Enyan a 22
year-old volunteer told me, "Most of these old people have nobody to help them and may be very sick. It
is very important that we look after them because we will also be old one day and will need people to
treat us nicely."

Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. In Accra, I met an old lady who had been widowed two months
before. With tears streaming down her wrinkled face, she told me her children had driven her out as a
witch because one of her grandchildren had accused her of "sucking out his wisdom" as an excuse for
doing poorly at school. Now her own children will have nothing to do with her, and refuse even to feed
her. Even the church would not intervene on the grounds that there was no proof that she was not a
witch.

By the time UN launches the International Year of Older Persons on 1st October and the Aspects of
Age programmes are broadcast, President Nelson Mandela will have celebrated his 80th birthday. He
will perhaps be one of the world's most visible old people at a time when more and more elderly Africans
are becoming invisible and neglected. The International Year of the Elderly will probably only marginally
help these people, but it may help raise awareness that ageing is a natural thing, it comes gradually
and it comes to everybody. Barring the discovery of some elixir of eternal youth between now and the
millennium, growing old is something we must all plan for.