THE WORDS OF ELDERS ARE THE WORDS OF WISDOM

By:
Ajukura, Fidelis O.
ajukurafidelisobi@gmail.com
25th January, 2023

The words of elders are the words of wisdom. This expression is one that is synonymous with African thought. Whatever an elder sees sitting down, a child will never see even if he climbs to the peak of the tallest tree. In African belief system, wisdom is simply "the totality of experience or knowledge gathered in the school or journey of life". It is for this reason that wisdom is associated with age. As a generally accepted assertion, there is bound to be an exception. The claim that "the words of elders are the words of wisdom" is not unaware of the fact that some elders are foolish. The reason why these elders act like moppets can be attributed to a number of factors but two are very significant 1. Fault of Nature: there are elders who obviously are foolish. This condition or characteristic did not fall from the blues. It is either they acquired it genetically or through mental retardation
2. Habit:
Some elders are precipitated into foolishness because of certain habits they have formed that are detrimental to their overall well-being e.g., drunkenness, lasciviousness etc. Elders who are known for drunkenness obviously will be lacking in wisdom.

When the popular cliche "the words of elders are the words of wisdom" is expressed, it precludes these defective elders - they are simply exception to elders.

Elders in this regard does not refer to one who is just older in age but one having authority by virtue of age and experience. These caliber of elders are seen piloting the affairs of the family, village/community etc. Somebody can be older or elder to another but how much of life's experience or knowledge does he/she have? The famous British philosopher, John Locke reasoned in this line when he asserted that, "the human mind at birth is like a tabula-rasa (blank slate)...experience is the invisible hand that writes on it". For example, a child will never know that fire burns until he/she comes in contact with it. One can never understand what he/she has not experienced. Personal or concrete experience certainly is different from all the tales we hear and all the books we read. We will never know the gravity or severity of a thing until we experience it.

As children growing up, we would bring our numerous friends to the house and eat as if there is no tomorrow. We used things in the house especially, food items in ways that were not necessary. In fact, we were wasteful because we didn't know what it meant to procure them. Everything we needed was just there for us thus, we took things for granted. For us, it was abnormal not to have basic needs like food and others at home. Even when we came across families struggling with food, it never registered in our young minds that there are families that do not have enough to eat. We simply took things for granted and continued with our ignorance of wasteful bearing. Sometimes, our father would scold us over the nonchalant way we used things in the house but this was always like sprinkling water on the back of a duck - it never made any sense to us.

One day, our father gathered all of us and spoke bitterly about the way we use things in the house without caring or considering that they were bought with hard-earned money. He further told us that a time will come when we are going to understand why he is always chastising us for being wasteful. Although, he never failed to conclude the sermon with the prayer that "God should bless our hands and cause us to have the experience of superintending over our homes". In curiosity, we have alway asked him to explain to us the reason for such disorienting prayer. And his response has always been "no matter how blessed you may be in life, superintending over a household is not an easy task"

Today, the words of our father continue to reverberate in our minds. Even though he passed away many years ago, his words are still fresh in our minds "superintending over a household is not an easy task". These words are like crystal - very clear. What we heard and never understood, experience has, as our father had predicted taught us that; running a home is indeed a herculean task. The deplorable economic condition currently besetting our society has made things worse. Today, as parents, we grapple with virtually everything that will make life meaningful for our children and other members of the family. In the face of the throes of hardship, we find our children sometimes wasting the food and other necessary items that we have managed to scratch out. No matter how we yell at them to be more prudent at using things at home, they will never understand. In their minds, we are being ridiculously miserly. But a time will come when they too will know that the words of elders are indeed words of wisdom.

nice post.
to be honest, some persons are old and foolish.
this is sometimes caused by the lifestyle one chooses to live while young.
a guy that is always partying and clubbing will not become a solomon overnight.
a lady that is very disrespectful and proud won't become a naomi before dawn.
I've seen some elders do very shameful things.
the african- nigerian society makes it worse.
this is because in our society, there is a belief that an elder can never be wrong. there is also a belief that parents should never apologize to their child no matter what. these and some other beliefs make some elderly ones misbehave and still feel that they are right.
if you talk about entitlement mentality, you will see the worse of it in many elders.
if you talk of being callous with words, a lot of elders feel that they can say anything and it can never be seen as being wrong, disrespectful or rude.

the part of responsibility ( you mentioned towards the end of your post ) sometimes has to do with upbringing and bitter life experiences.
some of us are lucky(like you and i) to have parents that (as much as they try to hide the struggles and difficulties they go through to foot the bills at home) try to let us know mildly that things are not really easy and that one day, it'll be our duty to provide.
we were able to get this message.
some persons were never taught.
some persons had parents that were never responsible.

the coming generation will be worse.
this is because the selfishness and entitlement mentality in youths these days is worse.
these persons will be the parents and elders of tomorrow.
what wisdom will they pass to the next generation?