The Importance Of Age To The Africans

The Africans are people with diverse cultures. Despite civilization and education, we still find it very difficult to distance ourselves from our cultures. For us, our cultures are our heritage and we cherish them with everything in us.

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Our predecessors pass on these traditions to us and we in turn pass them to upcoming generations. As Africans, we respect elders so much that we don’t call them names. We believe so much in order of birth. That is, if I was born before you, then I am your elder and as such you cannot call me by name. This is evident in our day to day activities by way of saying:

Brother Tunde, Tayo and sister Tobi, Esther. This has been a tradition that has been passed from one generation to another. It is even funny to see us use uncle and aunt differently. These ‘prefixes’ are used as signs of respect rather than to suggest the person is a relative. So you hear ‘Aunty Tobi’ or Uncle Tunde. This is done because the person came to the world before you and you are expected to respect the person with such ‘prefix’.

In Yoruba (An ethnic group in Nigeria), we have signs to differentiate our age-mate from those older than us. So we have two letters basically which are ‘O’ and ‘E’. We use the ‘O’ to communicate with our age-mate. 

Examples: 

‘O’

Se o n gbo mi (Are you listening to me)?

Ibo l’o n lo (Where are you going)?

Se o ti jeun (Have you eaten)?

‘E’

Se e n gbo mi (Are you listening to me)

Ibo l’e n lo (Where are you going)?

Se e ti jeun (Have you eaten)?

If you notice, both have same translations but to the Yoruba people, they are different as the latter shows sign of respect.

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This idea of respect permeate most of the things we do. To surprise you, when food is being shared, they are also shared according to age! Yeah! The eldest gets more followed by the elder! The eldest share meat for instance to his/her younger ones.

But the unique thing about this scenario is that an African parent always teach their children about morality and doing good. The eldest is always cautioned and kept in check by the parent. He is always told not to cheat his younger ones. But as the younger ones, what can we do? We take what we are given though grumble sometimes! 

Growing up, I always ask: why must my sister take a big fish while I take the small one? When I asked my mom, she surprises me with a funny answer and that is: She drank world water before you! And am like, really? She will just look at me and laugh. Her next response would be: why didn’t you come first? And am like, ehn ehn? This is really funny! I don’t know when a child decides when to come to the world by his or her own will.

But as we grow, we understand that the aim of all this is to teach us respect. They want us to start from home, from siblings, and then to the larger community because we must at all time respect the elders. No matter how old you are, the elders are always right! Even if they are wrong, they will tell you: Don’t you know she’s/he’s is an elder?

Respect is one thing Africans cherished and you can get things easily ones you are considered humble and respectful.

This is also evident in our greetings. We prostrate as guys to greet elders and the female kneel down to greet elders! These are also signs of respect. So don't be surprised if i prostrate in front of you! laughs!

Share with me those childhood experiences when you took big fish and gave your younger ones small or received small fish and your elder sister/brother took big one. How did you feel then? Do you agree that the age difference recognition is about respect alone or more?

This is a foundation for my next post

Thanks for reading. Its your boy @smyle the philosopher