In Novusumzi Masala’s life, there are 13 of everything – 13 pairs of used shoes scattered around her small two-bedroom home, 13 bowls stacked above her sink, and 13 piles of homework to do each night. Share Facebook Twitter
But the 13 little lives orbiting hers are not her children. Instead, at 78, Ms. Masala is busy raising a dozen grandchildren in a bakery, trying to keep up with the cadence of rap beats from their cellphone speakers to the schedule of their antiretroviral medications and doctor visits.
“This is not how I imagined my old age,” she says with a laugh, as a pair of toddlers rush to her feet. “But I keep going. They are my family – I could never say no to them.”
Sub-Saharan Africa is, by global standards, an extremely young region: 60 percent of its population is under 25, and there are 12.9 million people on the continent between the ages of 20 and 64 for every person over 65. (Compare that with Europe, where there are four young adults for every elderly person, or Japan, where there are just two.) Africa’s population, meanwhile, is growing faster than any other region on Earth, and by 2100 the UN predicts that one in four people on the planet will live here.
Depending on who you ask, the continent’s so-called “youth wave” is either a spectacular opportunity – with the potential to be an engine of massive economic growth – or a ticking time bomb. If the continent’s vast pool of young people becomes a vast pool of unemployed adults, after all, it could spell social and political disaster for the entire continent.
But one solution to creating opportunities for the continent's youth might be, ironically, to look in another direction, to older people - and especially men and women like Masala.
“There is often a perception that older people are vulnerable, frail and irrelevant to what happens to younger people, but we know that in reality the lives of older people and younger people are closely linked – there is a transfer of skills and knowledge that needs to happen for society to function,” said Isabella Aboderin, a senior researcher at the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) in Nairobi.
Helping the young by helping the elderly
In South Africa, where nearly 1 in 5 people are HIV-positive, the bond between the old and the young is particularly intimate. The country has about 3.7 million orphans — half of whom lost their parents to AIDS — and 8 percent of all children here are being raised by their grandparents, according to Statistics South Africa. (Continent-wide, UNICEF estimates that half of Africa’s 132 million orphans live with their grandparents.)
For Joey Manane, who runs a Soweto-based youth organisation called Ikusasa Lethu (Tomorrow is Ours), that connection is essential. He has come to see supporting older people in his community as a vital part of his work supporting young people.
Three mornings a week, when the children finish breakfast and leave her centre for school, the local grannies start arriving, ready for a day of crafts, support groups and sports.
"We have a very good grandma football team," he said.
The logic behind programs for seniors in a youth center is simple, he says. “It makes our work with kids so much easier if their ‘gogos’ feel supported.” He estimates that about 60 percent of the youth he works with, who come from HIV-affected homes in the surrounding community, are being raised by grandparents.
At the Masalas’ house, Angelina Majoro, a vivacious young counsellor from Ikusasa Lethu, also visits once a week to check on Novusumzi and her grandchildren, who range in age from two to 17. Sometimes she helps with their homework, cooks their meals or draws up a family budget. Other times, she sits and listens to her grandmother’s frustrations – raising 13 children when your only source of income is a small government grant is not easy – and she vents her worries and wishes they could move to a bigger place.
"It's helpful to talk so you don't bottle things up," Masala says.
The need to prepare
Although Africa's population remains youth-oriented, Masala's population is also growing. Africans, like people around the world, are starting to live longer, and over the next 35 years the percentage of the population over the age of 65 is expected to triple to about 10 percent, according to the UN.
But the continent’s demographics also give it a unique position on a global scale. Unlike parts of the world where figuring out how to care for a rapidly aging population is already stumping policymakers, Africa has time. While there are early signs that regional bodies such as the African Union are recognizing the challenge ahead, overall, however, the region remains unprepared, Aboderin said.
“Unlike in other regions where there is very explicit recognition that population ageing is a very serious development issue that requires planning and action, this has not yet been the case in sub-Saharan Africa,” she said. “Overall, I think it is fair to say that at the national level, ageing issues remain marginal, if not non-existent.”
For the Masalas, however, there is little discussion of the essential bond between its younger and older members. Recently, some of the older children presented their grandmother with a song they had written about their lives. It was a haunting rap ballad, and unsurprisingly, it featured prominently.
“It’s a song about what we’ve been through and how we’ve moved forward, with the help of our grandmother,” said Ongezwa Masala, 15. “We sing to tell her why we love her.”
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