Nordic Journal of African Studies

Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa

Joachim Knab — 2024-12-19

This article introduces the special issue "Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies".

Greyness Is Aged, Bearded Is Adult

Augustine Agwuele — 2024-12-19

I explore how Yoruba people ascertain who is junior, who is senior, and the mark of equality beyond obvious age, as well as the social function of these distinctions in everyday life. The social ranking of people as either senior, junior or mate is an invaluable principle of social organization among the Yoruba. It features prominently in determining privileges and access, and in orchestrating interpersonal relationships and modes of interaction. I examine linguistic and non-verbal signs drawn from popular cultural performances, habitual practices and proverbs, including sozialised roles and habitual typification which representing the cogitations of a Yoruba senior, to provide an ethnographic description of this social practice in its historical and contemporary form. In addition to the linguistic evidence, the opinions of subjects interviewed on the subject are presented. Taken together, the various sources of information show that this classification system operates within integrated cultural institutions that rest on their origination precepts, goals of earthly existence, and sociation habitudes. The system and its utility persist as they are fundamentally woven into the psychology of the children during their formative years within the lineage, and into the worldview of others through enculturation since people’s life chances are partly dependent on their position within their nuclear family and their lineage.

Linguistic Manifestations of Age-Grade Status in Iraqw Address Term Practices

Chrispina Alphonce — 2024-12-19

This study examines linguistic manifestations of age-grade status among the Iraqw, a Southern Cushitic ethnic group in northern Tanzania. It identifies how life stages or age grades are conceptually distinguished in Iraqw terminology and then looks at how the use of address terms relates to concepts of age and seniority. Based on the qualitative methods of native speaker observations and interviews, the study analyses linguistic patterns across various social interactions such as greetings, conversations, and both formal and informal acts of address. Drawing on anthropological linguistics and the pragmatics of person reference, the findings reveal that age is conceptualized in terms of social roles rather than chronological age. The obligatory use of kinship terms and titles for older individuals reflects their superiority and the honour that is due to them, while the use of proper names, pronouns, endearments, and attention-getting interjections is often the choice for juniors, signifying their lower social status. The selection of address forms reveals distinct elements across relationships, with practices varying from focusing on relational status within families to combining age and marital status in affinal ties, and emphasizing age in non-relative interactions. Nevertheless, all address practices reflect deeply rooted cultural values of respect and hierarchy. This study indicates the subtle ways linguistic choices reinforce social structures, offering insights into how language, age, and social status intersect. It also contributes to broader discussions in sociolinguistics and anthropology by examining traditional address practices.

Seniority in Midwifery in Tanzania

Veronica Kimani — 2024-12-19

Concepts of seniority and elderhood were important structuring elements in many societies of precolonial Africa and were connected with social status. This changed with the European colonization of Africa, and strongly affected traditional cultures of elderhood and seniority. On a general level, this societal change took place through efforts at ‘modernization’, in the field of midwifery and maternity mainly through mission education and the introduction of Western medicine. The impact of colonialism continued in the postcolonial era when the former emphasis placed on old age as a structuring factor for societal hierarchies was partly replaced by other factors such as political power, monetary wealth (in the new capitalist economy), or the level of education, including access to scientific knowledge. These changes were certainly not always as linear as often portrayed in earlier historical research. In the case of traditional midwifery, several studies have shown its transformation through the process of medicalization and the decline of traditional midwives. However, in this paper, we will look at medical practice and analyse how – since colonial times – the attempts to end or transform traditional midwifery have been contested, had setbacks, and been full of varying, sometimes antagonistic developments. Using Kilombero in Tanzania as an example, we show how the services of traditional midwives continue to be sought, even in independent Tanzania. In this respect, the concept of age and seniority play a key role. Besides strong external influences, internal cultural interplay still favours the concept of elderhood, leading to the survival of traditional midwives.

What is ‘Old’ in Old Age? An Inquiry into Swahili Paremia

Ahmad Kipacha — 2024-12-19

This article is about gerontological proverbs in Swahili folkloric discourses. The question posed in this study is as follows: how is old age depicted according to Swahili paremiology? To answer this question, 49 popular Swahili gerontological proverbs have been analysed. The findings show that Swahili gerontological proverbs, like other non-Western gerontological proverbs, pay due respect to elders who are considered wise, knowledgeable, and experienced. How someone is perceived to be an elder is largely socially and culturally constructed. There are several Swahili gerontological proverbs that are equivalent to proverbs in different cultures and languages including Russian, German, Yiddish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and others.

This research report has been reviewed by the editors of the special issue but has not been externally peer-reviewed.

Power and Age

Sam Maghimbi — 2024-12-19

Spencer (1965, 1988, 1993, 2003) theorizes two distinct strands in the life course of a Maasai male. The first strand is the building of a cattle herd and a family, and the second is developing involvement in the age class system. The second strand is overemphasized in Spencer’s analysis of Maasai society. The age class system attracts nearly euphoric attention from Spencer and other authors on the Maasai. This stance has led to a point where the materiality of Maasai life (cattle) is discussed but is hidden behind a discussion of the age system. This article argues that more weight should be given to the first strand of Maasai life mentioned by Spencer. Maasai society may still be largely organized along gerontocratic lines, but nevertheless the power of Maasai men is derived from the cattle herd and from their control of their families.

This research report has been reviewed by the editors of the special issue but has not been externally peer-reviewed.

“This Child is This Small Only on His Age”

Solange Mekamgoum — 2024-12-19

This paper examines the emic concepts pertaining to age in Ngəmba, a language spoken in the Western Region of Cameroon. It explores both the terminological concepts available in the language for talking about age and their usage in everyday speech. Drawing upon video recordings of spontaneous interactions obtained through ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2023 within this community, I analyse how age disparities and similarities are negotiated through social interactions. This includes examining advice speech events and interactional routines such as turn taking, bodily actions, and linguistic behaviours during greetings and receiving gifts. The paper underscores the role of verbal and non-verbal indicators of power and familiarity in establishing relationships. By uncovering the age dynamics and the sociocultural significance of age in social interactions, this study makes a substantial contribution to the broader discussions on age negotiation and intergenerational dynamics. Furthermore, it addresses a notable gap in the existing literature on age-related topics in Ngəmba, paving the way for further exploration of the interplay between traditional values and evolving social dynamics concerning age within the Ngəmba community and beyond.

“I’m Bigger!”

Alice Mitchell — 2024-12-19

Pre-school age children in European contexts are known to use labels like ‘big’ and ‘small’ to orient to age differences, very often to highlight differences in physical and social competence (Häll 2022). This research report explores Datooga-speaking Tanzanian children’s use of a set of polysemous words that can refer to physical size, age, and kinship-based seniority: háw ‘big, old, senior’, mánàng’ ‘small, young, junior’, and deen ‘be equal to in size or age’. Based on a video corpus of everyday interaction, the paper singles out these size-related terms to assess the extent to which children engage with lexicalized concepts relating to size and seniority. Results show that while young Datooga children pay a lot of attention to physical size, in my data children’s only orientations to age and seniority using these terms occurred in conversations with adults. Unlike Datooga adults and Swedish preschoolers, Datooga children in early to middle childhood were not observed using size-based terms as a resource for negotiating (and leveraging) age difference.

Augmented Authority

Koen Stroeken — 2024-12-19

The paper describes changed elderhood in Sukuma-speaking villages in Tanzania through a combined situational and cultural analysis, starting with the traditional role of (re)generation and medicine in practices of greeting. Elderhood, I argue, has changed obliquely because of its interrelationship with medicine, whose union of recipe and rite was severed under globalizing pressures for ‘simplication’. By this we understand a process that simplifies a cultural practice, renders it predictable, through complicated substitution. Ethnographic synthesis demonstrates that the kul strand of natural growth and the kum strand of healing/regeneration are sources of production. Elders derive authority from the first source and augment it with the second. The latter’s medicinal claim to power antagonized the colonial administration in the 1930s and, for different reasons, also irritated the postcolonial state (with the exception of Magufuli’s presidency). The ‘simplication’ of medicine in the name of development has been aided by the demise of chieftaincy as well as by a national cultural divide and by dismissive attitudes to the institution of healing. Elderhood has indirectly paid the price.

This research report has been reviewed by the editors of the special issue but has not been externally peer-reviewed.

Doing Being Senior/Junior

Akira Takada — 2024-12-19

In this article, I will reconsider the naming and kinship relationships of the !Xun San in north-central Namibia from the perspective of child socialization. I will thereby deconstruct the naturalized view in which ‘relative age’ (a concept to indicate the age sequence between two persons, positioned relatively from older to younger) and ‘generational distance’ (a concept to indicate the character of the relational space between relatives, positioned relatively from senior to junior) are conceptualized based on ‘absolute age’ (years objectively measured in terms of the time that has passed since one’s birth). I will then demonstrate a view in which relative age and even absolute age become socially explicit, although not always in the context of social relations ordered by generational distance. !Xun children are considered to be socialized as they participate in social relations associated with generational distance and become proficient in the appropriate conduct therein.

Differences of Age Without Distinctions of Authority

Thomas Widlok — 2024-12-19

This contribution begins with the puzzle as to why there are kinship and naming systems that distinguish junior from senior, elaborately and systematically, even though these practices are embedded in substantially egalitarian societies. The case under investigation is that of Hai‖om, a Khoisan (Khoekhoe)-speaking group in southern Africa that shows such a combination of the elaborate encoding of age difference while at the same time providing elders with very little authority over juniors. The article briefly discusses explanations such as the possible effects of cultural domination by neighbouring groups in recent history, which could play a role, but I argue that there is little evidence for such explanations in this case. The alternative argument put forward here aims to show how birth sequence functions as a general means of social orientation. Moreover, what prevents age awareness from being turned into status distinctions are social hedging mechanisms that are enmeshed with the junior/senior distinction, particularly in practices such as cross-sex naming, but also in linguistic features such as the common use of reciprocals beyond dyads to express kin ‘belonging together’. The article concludes by outlining some general lessons derived from the Hai‖om case study in terms of decoupling seniority from superiority and gerontocracy.

Training as a Rite of Passage

Julia Caroline Wummel — 2024-12-19

Following the transformative journey of Kenyan geothermal professionals throughout a training programme in Iceland and back to their homes, I argue that such long-term training in foreign countries can function as a rite of passage. The collective experience of the geothermal training programme as a liminal space forges an egalitarian peer group, regardless of the members’ biological age or usual workplace position. Simultaneously, it provides the opportunity to gain both social and cultural capital, which raises the professional status of the participants and, thereby, their seniority. The trainees become a tight-knit community of practice, so much so that they may support each other even years after they have come back to their regular jobs in their home country. At the same time, the members become part of a bigger, prestigious geothermal ‘family’ of international experts. This expert community exchanges knowledge and support globally and provides distinction to its members. Thus, attending this course goes beyond being taught geothermal skills and scientific knowledge. Attendees become legitimate actors of professional expertise that are more powerful than those who have not yet been exposed to the training. The Icelandic training programme ‘makes’ experts and can thus be seen as a rite of passage, providing a more senior status to initiates that can even mitigate age and gender discrimination to some extent.