Ageing and old age in pre-industrial Africa: elderly persons among 19th-century Xhosa-speaking peoples
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/sajg.v8i2.167Abstract
Thusfar, African gerontologists have not attended to precolonial ageing, except to subscribe to a timeless perspective rooted in modernization theorys 'golden age narrative.' This paper sketches some dimensions of the ageing experience in a pre-industrial African "nation, the Xhosa-speaking societies in South Africa. It begins with a reconstruction of precolonial residence patterns and the economic status of elderly persons before it turns to the issue of cultural representations of ageing and old age in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Notwithstanding the intimate association of (male) ageing with accumulation of economic resources, the belief in ancestors functioned as a fundamental instrument by which old-age authority was upheld, apart from its colouring the very notion of Xhosa old age. Having examined the religious basis of the ageing experience, finally the gendered nature of old-age security is discussed. In a nutshell, it is argued that even though age was different in social and cultural terms and was thus an important aspect of any individual's identity, age alone never defined any persons economic status or social identity. Gender and kinship, but also biographically conditioned factors, affected the experience of old age. The notion of old age as an abstract entity is a Western-based construct which reflects an ageist conception, i.e. (chronological) old age as the determinant of old people's identity, and the inadequate comprehension of other prime social processes that moulded the lives of elderly persons rather than the reality of old age in precolonial Xhosa communities.References
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Alchley, R. 1989. A continuity theory of normal aging. The Gerontologist, 29: 183-190.
Barrow, J. 1801/04. An account of travels into the interior of Southern Africa. Volumes 1 and 2. London: Cadell & Davies.
Beinart, W. 1982. The political economy of Pondoland 1860 to 1930. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Bennett, T, 1995. A sourcebook of African customary law for Southern Africa. Cape Town: Juta.
Biesele, M. & Howell, N. 1981. The old people give you life: aging among IKung hunter-gatherers. In: Amoss.P.T. & Harrell, S. (Eds) Other ways of growing old. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 77-98.
Boyce, W.B. 1838 [here: 1971], Notes on South African affairs. Cape Town: C. Struik. (= Africana Collectanea, Vol. 39.)
Breckenridge, K. 1998. The allure of violence: men, race and masculinity on the South African goldmines, 1900-1950. Journal of Southern African Studies, 24(4): 669-693.
Brownlee, C. 1858. Mr. Brownlees notes. In: Maclean, J. (Ed.) A compendium of Kafir laws and customs. London: Frank Cass, pp. 113-130.
Callaway, G. 1905 [here: 1969]. Sketches of Kafir life. New York: Negro Universities Press.
Cape (of Good Hope). 1883, Report and proceedings with appendices, of the government commission on native laws and custom. Cape Town: Government Printer.
Cohen, L. 1998. No aging in India: Alzheimer's, the bad family, and other modern things. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Comaroff, J. 1985. Body of power, spirit of resistance: the culture and history o f a South African people. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dugmore, H.H. 1858 [here: 1968]. Rev. H.H. Dugmores papers. In: Maclean, J. (Ed.) A compendium of Kafir laws and customs. London: Frank Cass, pp. 1-56, 160-168.
Fast, H.H. (Ed.) 1994. The journal and selected letters of Rev. William J. Shrewsbury 1826-1835. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Ferreira, M. 1997. Gerontology in and out of Africa. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 6(2): 1-2.
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Hammond-Tooke, W.D. 1993. The roots of black South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.
Holden, W. C. 1866 [here: 1963). The past and future of the Kaffir races. Cape Town: C. Struik.
Hunter, M. 1936 [here: 1969]. Reaction to conquest: effects of contact with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa. London: Oxford University Press.
Iliffe, J. 1987. The African poor: a history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kay, S. 1833. Travels and researches in Caffraria: describing the character, customs, and moral condition of the tribes inhabiting that portions of Southern Africa. With historical and topographical remarks illustrative of the state and prospects of the British settlement in its borders, the introduction of Christianity, and the progress of civilization. London: John Mason.
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Kertzer, D.L & Laslett, P. (Eds) 1995. Aging in the past: demography, society, and old age. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Krige, E.J. 1936 [here: 1950], The social system of the Zulu. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter.
Kropf, A. 1889. Das Volk der Xosa-Kaffem im dstlichen Sudafrika nach seiner Geschichte, Eigenart, Verfassung und Religion: Ein Beitrag zur afrikanischen Vblkerkunde. (History, characteristics, constitution and religion of the Xhosa Kafirs in South-East Africa: a contribution to African ethnology.) Berlin: Berliner Evangelische Missionsgesellschaft.
Kropf, A, 1899 [here: 1915). A Kafir-English dictionary. Lovedale: Lovedale Mission Press.
Kuckertz, H. 1990. Creating order: the image of the homestead in Mpondo social life. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Kuckertz, H. 1997. Ukuhlonipha as idiom ofmoral reasoning in Mpondo. In: McAllister, P. (Ed.) Culture and the commonplace. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 311-348.
Laubseher, B.J.F. 1937 [here: 1951], Sex, custom and psychopathology: a study of South African pagan natives. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lewis, J. 1992. Class and gender in pre-capitalist societies: a consideration of the 1848 census of the Xhosa. The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19lh and 20th Centuries, 17: 61-75.
Lichtenstein, H. 1811 [here: 1928]. Travels in Southern Africa, in the years 1803,1804,1805 and 1806. Volumes 1 and 2. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.
Liebenberg, A. 1997. Dealing with relations of inequality: married women in a Transkei village. In: McAllister, P. (Ed.) Culture and the commonplace. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 349-373.
Mayer, P. & Mayer, I. 1975. Socialization by peers: the youth organization of the red Xhosa. In: Mayer, P. (Ed.} Socialization: the approach from social anthropology. London: Tavistock, pp. 159-189.
McLaren, J. 1915 [here: 1996], A new concise Xhosa-English dictionary. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.
Moodie, T.D. 1994. Men, mines and migration: going for gold. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Native Appeal Court 1894/1909. Reports of cases decided in the Native Appeal Courts of the Transkeian Territories 1894 to 1909. Edited by Benjamin Henkel. Cape Town: Cape Times.
Native Economic Commission 1930/32. Evidence. Volume 5. Unpublished typescripts. National Archives Pretoria, K 26.
Ngubane, H. 1977. Body and mind in Zulu medicine. London: Academic Press.
Pauw, B.A. 1975. Christianity and Xhosa tradition: belief and ritual among Xhosa-speaking Christians. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Peires, J. 1981. The house of Phalo. Joannesburg: Ravan,
Pratt, M.L. 1992. Imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation, London: Routledge.
Qayiso, P. 1964. Xhosa morality. Unpublished typescript. Cory Library, MS 16891, Folder 13.
Sagner, A. n.d. The abandoned mother: ageing, old age and missionaries in 19th-century South Africa. (In preparation).
Shaw, W. 1860. The story of my mission in South-Eastern Africa. London: Hamilton, Adams.
Shaw, W. 1872. The story of my mission among the native tribes of South Eastern Africa. London: Wesleyan Mission House.
Steedman, A. 1835 [here: 1966], Wanderings and adventures in the interior of Southern Africa. Volumes 1 and 2. Cape Town: C. Struik.
Turner, V. 1967. The forest of symbols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Van Warmelo, N.J. 1935. Preliminary survey of the Bantu tribes of South Africa. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Van Eeden, J.A. 1991. Ageing and seniority in a rural Xhosa community. Cape Town; HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology.
Van Gennep, A. 1908 [here: 1977]. The rites of passage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Warner, J.C. 1858 [here: 1968]. Mr. Warners notes. In: Maclean, J. (Ed.) A compendium of Kafir laws and customs. London: Frank Cass, pp. 59 - 112.
Williams, Donovan 1983. The journal and selected writings of the reverend Tiyo Soga. Cape Town: Balkema.
Wilson, M., Kaplan, S., Maki, T. & Walton, E.M. 1952. Social structure. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter.
Wilson, M. 1969. The Nguni people, In: Wilson, M. & Thompson, L. (Eds) The Oxford history of South Africa. Volume 1: South Africa to 1870. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 75-130.
Alberti, L. 1810[here: 1968], Ludwig Alberti's account of the tribal life and customs of the Xhosa in 1807. Cape Town: A.A. Balkema.
Alchley, R. 1989. A continuity theory of normal aging. The Gerontologist, 29: 183-190.
Barrow, J. 1801/04. An account of travels into the interior of Southern Africa. Volumes 1 and 2. London: Cadell & Davies.
Beinart, W. 1982. The political economy of Pondoland 1860 to 1930. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Bennett, T, 1995. A sourcebook of African customary law for Southern Africa. Cape Town: Juta.
Biesele, M. & Howell, N. 1981. The old people give you life: aging among IKung hunter-gatherers. In: Amoss.P.T. & Harrell, S. (Eds) Other ways of growing old. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 77-98.
Boyce, W.B. 1838 [here: 1971], Notes on South African affairs. Cape Town: C. Struik. (= Africana Collectanea, Vol. 39.)
Breckenridge, K. 1998. The allure of violence: men, race and masculinity on the South African goldmines, 1900-1950. Journal of Southern African Studies, 24(4): 669-693.
Brownlee, C. 1858. Mr. Brownlees notes. In: Maclean, J. (Ed.) A compendium of Kafir laws and customs. London: Frank Cass, pp. 113-130.
Callaway, G. 1905 [here: 1969]. Sketches of Kafir life. New York: Negro Universities Press.
Cape (of Good Hope). 1883, Report and proceedings with appendices, of the government commission on native laws and custom. Cape Town: Government Printer.
Cohen, L. 1998. No aging in India: Alzheimer's, the bad family, and other modern things. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Comaroff, J. 1985. Body of power, spirit of resistance: the culture and history o f a South African people. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dugmore, H.H. 1858 [here: 1968]. Rev. H.H. Dugmores papers. In: Maclean, J. (Ed.) A compendium of Kafir laws and customs. London: Frank Cass, pp. 1-56, 160-168.
Fast, H.H. (Ed.) 1994. The journal and selected letters of Rev. William J. Shrewsbury 1826-1835. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Ferreira, M. 1997. Gerontology in and out of Africa. Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 6(2): 1-2.
Fetter, B. (Eds) 1990. Demography from scanty evidence: Central Africa in the colonial era. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Fuller. C.E. 1972. Aging among Southern African Bantu. In: Cowgill, D.O. & H olm es, L. (E ds) A ging and m odern iza tio n New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, pp, 51-72.
Gutmann, D.L. 1975. Parenthood: a key to the comparative study of the life cycle. In: Datan, N. & Ginsburg, L. (Eds) Lifespan developmental psychology: normative life cycles. New York: Academic Press, pp. 167-184.
Guy, J. 1990. Gender oppression in southern Africas precapitalist societies. In: Walker, C. (Ed.) Women and gender in Southern Africa to 1945. Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 33-47.
Haber, C. & Grafton, B. 1994. Old age and the search for security: an American social history. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Halperin, R.H. 1987. Age in cross-cultural perspective; an evolutionary approach. In: Silverman, P. (Ed.) The elderly as modern pioneers. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, pp. 283-211.
Hammond-Tooke, W.D. 1962. Bhaca society. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Hammond-Tooke, W.D. (Ed.) 1972. The Journal of William Shaw. Cape Town: Balkeroa.
Hammond-Tooke, W.D. 1974. World-view 1 and 2. In: Hammond-Tooke, W.D. (Ed.) The Bantu-speaking peoples of Southern Africa. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 318-363.
Hammond-Tooke, W.D. 1993. The roots of black South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.
Holden, W. C. 1866 [here: 1963). The past and future of the Kaffir races. Cape Town: C. Struik.
Hunter, M. 1936 [here: 1969]. Reaction to conquest: effects of contact with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa. London: Oxford University Press.
Iliffe, J. 1987. The African poor: a history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kay, S. 1833. Travels and researches in Caffraria: describing the character, customs, and moral condition of the tribes inhabiting that portions of Southern Africa. With historical and topographical remarks illustrative of the state and prospects of the British settlement in its borders, the introduction of Christianity, and the progress of civilization. London: John Mason.
Kertzer, D.I. 1995. Toward a historical demography of aging. In: Kertzer, D.I. & Laslett, P. (Eds) 1995. Aging in the past: demography, society, and old age. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 363-383.
Kertzer, D.L & Laslett, P. (Eds) 1995. Aging in the past: demography, society, and old age. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Krige, E.J. 1936 [here: 1950], The social system of the Zulu. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter.
Kropf, A. 1889. Das Volk der Xosa-Kaffem im dstlichen Sudafrika nach seiner Geschichte, Eigenart, Verfassung und Religion: Ein Beitrag zur afrikanischen Vblkerkunde. (History, characteristics, constitution and religion of the Xhosa Kafirs in South-East Africa: a contribution to African ethnology.) Berlin: Berliner Evangelische Missionsgesellschaft.
Kropf, A, 1899 [here: 1915). A Kafir-English dictionary. Lovedale: Lovedale Mission Press.
Kuckertz, H. 1990. Creating order: the image of the homestead in Mpondo social life. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Kuckertz, H. 1997. Ukuhlonipha as idiom ofmoral reasoning in Mpondo. In: McAllister, P. (Ed.) Culture and the commonplace. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 311-348.
Laubseher, B.J.F. 1937 [here: 1951], Sex, custom and psychopathology: a study of South African pagan natives. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lewis, J. 1992. Class and gender in pre-capitalist societies: a consideration of the 1848 census of the Xhosa. The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19lh and 20th Centuries, 17: 61-75.
Lichtenstein, H. 1811 [here: 1928]. Travels in Southern Africa, in the years 1803,1804,1805 and 1806. Volumes 1 and 2. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.
Liebenberg, A. 1997. Dealing with relations of inequality: married women in a Transkei village. In: McAllister, P. (Ed.) Culture and the commonplace. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 349-373.
Mayer, P. & Mayer, I. 1975. Socialization by peers: the youth organization of the red Xhosa. In: Mayer, P. (Ed.} Socialization: the approach from social anthropology. London: Tavistock, pp. 159-189.
McLaren, J. 1915 [here: 1996], A new concise Xhosa-English dictionary. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.
Moodie, T.D. 1994. Men, mines and migration: going for gold. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Native Appeal Court 1894/1909. Reports of cases decided in the Native Appeal Courts of the Transkeian Territories 1894 to 1909. Edited by Benjamin Henkel. Cape Town: Cape Times.
Native Economic Commission 1930/32. Evidence. Volume 5. Unpublished typescripts. National Archives Pretoria, K 26.
Ngubane, H. 1977. Body and mind in Zulu medicine. London: Academic Press.
Pauw, B.A. 1975. Christianity and Xhosa tradition: belief and ritual among Xhosa-speaking Christians. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Peires, J. 1981. The house of Phalo. Joannesburg: Ravan,
Pratt, M.L. 1992. Imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation, London: Routledge.
Qayiso, P. 1964. Xhosa morality. Unpublished typescript. Cory Library, MS 16891, Folder 13.
Sagner, A. n.d. The abandoned mother: ageing, old age and missionaries in 19th-century South Africa. (In preparation).
Shaw, W. 1860. The story of my mission in South-Eastern Africa. London: Hamilton, Adams.
Shaw, W. 1872. The story of my mission among the native tribes of South Eastern Africa. London: Wesleyan Mission House.
Steedman, A. 1835 [here: 1966], Wanderings and adventures in the interior of Southern Africa. Volumes 1 and 2. Cape Town: C. Struik.
Turner, V. 1967. The forest of symbols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Van Warmelo, N.J. 1935. Preliminary survey of the Bantu tribes of South Africa. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Van Eeden, J.A. 1991. Ageing and seniority in a rural Xhosa community. Cape Town; HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology.
Van Gennep, A. 1908 [here: 1977]. The rites of passage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Warner, J.C. 1858 [here: 1968]. Mr. Warners notes. In: Maclean, J. (Ed.) A compendium of Kafir laws and customs. London: Frank Cass, pp. 59 - 112.
Williams, Donovan 1983. The journal and selected writings of the reverend Tiyo Soga. Cape Town: Balkema.
Wilson, M., Kaplan, S., Maki, T. & Walton, E.M. 1952. Social structure. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter.
Wilson, M. 1969. The Nguni people, In: Wilson, M. & Thompson, L. (Eds) The Oxford history of South Africa. Volume 1: South Africa to 1870. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 75-130.
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