Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa
This article introduces the special issue “Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies”.
Tag: Special Issue: Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa
Training as a Rite of Passage
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 coll…
Doing Being Senior/Junior
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 …
Differences of Age Without Distinctions of Authority
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…
“I’m Bigger!”
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 Datoog…
Augmented Authority
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 argu…
Power and Age
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…
“This Child Is This Small Only on His Age”
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 …
What Is ‘Old’ in Old Age? An Inquiry into Swahili Paremia
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 gerontologic…
Seniority in Midwifery in Tanzania
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 c…
Linguistic Manifestations of Age-Grade Status in Iraqw Address Term Practices
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 the…
Greyness Is Aged, Bearded Is Adult
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 …