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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | From Wisdom to Witchcraft: Ambivalence towards Old Age in Rural Ghana |
Author: | Geest, Sjaak van der |
Year: | 2002 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 72 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 437-463 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ghana |
Subjects: | elderly Akan Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556727 |
Abstract: | This article presents fragments of conversation with elderly and younger people in the rural town of Kwahu Tafo, eastern Ghana, in 1994-1996 and 2000. The statements of the various Akan speakers are often contradictory. The borders between respect and hatred, admiration and envy, affection and fear prove porous. The article is an attempt to understand the changing sentiments of the young towards the old, and vice versa. Elders pronounce both blessings and curses. Their spiritual power is sometimes appreciated as wisdom, the fruit of lifelong experience. At other times that spiritual power is denounced as witchcraft. Theologically these statements sound confusing and contradictory. From a sociological point of view, however, they make sense. They express the basic ambivalence of young people towards the old. On one hand there is respect, a cultural code which is almost 'natural': one regards with awe and admiration what came before. On the other, old people engender resentment because of their overbearing attitude and their refusal to 'go'. The fact that young people die while old people remain alive is a reversal of the natural order and reeks of witchcraft. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |