Why Not End African Ageism Here?-In Mauritius
“Everyone who can come please do. You will be thrilled and inspired!! Please come, it is free of charge. Thanks High Commissioner for South Africa Mauritius Her Excellency Dr. Manzini for arranging for them to come!! Here is their story everyone!! https://www.faena.com/aleph/the-story-of-south-africas-soccer-grannies”The soon arrival of the South African Grannies Soccer team in Mauritius in late April reminds me of a conversation I had with my Yale Department Chair as a young adult sociologist then in my early thirties. He was one of the founders of medical sociology in the area of mental health. His name was Jerome “ Jerry” Meyers. One day over lunch,or something like that, Jerry mentioned something quite startling which in my own life I have personally experienced as an older human being in demeaning ways such as being called elderly and like a child being talked down to like being called dear or honey or being discriminated in employment, against in health insurance or store credit since I am over some established retirement age in African countries where I have lived.Namely, quite casually, almost in passing, Jerry told me the most basic type of prejudice and inequality in the world is not race,gender, class, caste, religion, or language. It is age, that is ageism, meaning demeaning older people, stereotyping us, discriminating against us because we are older, conventionally, 55 and especially 65 years and over. And the dehumanization and discriminatory dynamics and impacts of ageism worsens when you are older and not a member of a dominant population premised on gender, race, class, caste, religion, disability, or communalism. Consider all the blatant and subtle insidious assumptions we have in most societies around the world, leading us to believe old people are over the hill, have no more use value so are forced to leave jobs and careers 55 years and above. There are all kinds of granny and grandpa jokes we freely express making it appear how useless and helpless you are at 55 years and older.Ageism is especially rampant in Africa, especially when it comes to older women. Once you turn 50 if not 45 as a woman in most African nations, you are no longer viewed as having value, you cannot have any more kids and have not the energy to take care of the home front as in the past. Stereotypically, older women are assumed to have lost their sex appeal if not the glow of their former beauty. In some African countries, older women have been accused of witchcraft and even killed due to such dehumanizing stereotyping. Frankly, the ageist traditions in African countries which are expressed formally in their retirement policies or lack thereof have been a big surprise to me over my years in Africa . Since coming from America, I assumed Africans respected older people which I have found to be far from the case when it comes to the virtual absence of anti-ageism public policies in governments on the continent and the negative things I hear Africans young and older say about older people. Those ageist experiences I have observed as an ethnographer of daily experiences wherever I go, are countered occasionally by experiencing “older age respect” in numerous instances which unfortunately are imbalanced with the usual indifference and disregard for older people in African nations .It seems to be increasing as an ageism norm and value system as Africans join global trends of western mass consumerism with their subtle and not so subtle cultural ageist cues such as the worship of everything age categorical youthful and viewing older people, even aging parents to be liabilities except for inheritance to be acquired once parents die.This is why I am elated the SA Grannies Soccer Team is coming to Mauritius, an African country with a rare disproportionate number of people over 55. These older women athletes show the world the foolishness of ageism especially when it comes to women,African women at that. Not everyone over 55 is in poor health and immobile or unable to be productive. And there are to the panic attacks of geriatric demographers since there are a growing number of healthy people living well beyond their 70s, 80s and 90s. We don’t know what to do with them since our ageist public policies and everyday norms and stereotypes lead us to believe that in most societies you have one foot in the grave at age 55 or 60. So in most countries we are ill-prepared for healthy productive people living well over 55 years. For healthy older persons we remain so behind, so archaic in our ageist attitudes about older people in Africa and beyond, we don’t know how to provide housing for them, cultural activities for them, or educational and employment/ entrepreneurship opportunities for older people in most parts of the world.As much as I did not agree with most of the 1980s policies of US President Reagan, one lasting good thing I believe he did was do away with retirement laws and make ageism a federal civil rights offense. Though there are people in American institutions, communities, and systems who still find ways to subtly practice ageism, for the most part the Reagan anti-ageism policies have proved to be liberating for older people while allowing those leaders in employment sectors not to be forced to dispose of their most seasoned workers once they turn a certain age and for cultural leaders to find value and profit in supporting post-55 consumer tastes and lifestyles. The few countries in the world which have followed suit in doing away with retirement policies and anti-ageism policies are more than likely finding the same balance between older people’s feelings of self worth and continued productivity and employment and cultural leaders finding their societies to become much more vibrant. This is especially the case in those societal institutions, communities, and systems with leaders which understand and instill inter-generational understanding and support norms and values which provide needed opportunities for older- younger caring and empowering conversations about life coaching, leadership transitions, and other needed positive relations between younger and older people.This speaks of the need for anti-ageism policies in Mauritius for the sake of the continued positive development of the nation-state and as a model for other African nations to follow in culturally tailored ways. The disproportionate 55 and over population in the country and the civil society influence of the National Senior Citizen Council, ,itself a global best practice model, and the small size of the island nation would easily allow Mauritius to become an imperative shining light in this needed fight against humanity’s most basic form of prejudice and inequality-ageism. I hope the SA Grannies Soccer match on April 27 will motivate the movers and shakers of Mauritius to see this vital light of transformation and be the continental and global leader it deserves to be to embrace it and act on it in the most impactful policies designs and implementation ways possible. Why not here?