For us in the developed world it is difficult to comprehend the challenge of ageing in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA).
At the South Africa Care Forum a government representative simply stated they did not have the money to support the aged. Instead the government policy is to acknowledge that this responsibility rests with each community, as has been tradition for the millennia. He acknowledged this is not perfect but there is no option.
But consider these facts. HIV/Aids is called “the grandmothers disease” because it eliminated an entire generation of young parents (up to 15 years ago). The grandmothers took responsibility for the orphaned grandchildren, including 1.2 million children in South Africa that are HIV positive.
Researchers and policymakers identified the biggest challenge to SAA is rapid urbanisation, with towns less than 500,000 population seeing the biggest surge of working age people leaving rural areas seeking employment.
Remote village communities are left to the young and the old. There are few remaining residents that are worldly or familiar with dementia. When the elderly are overtaken by the symptoms of dementia the unknowing youth can only explain their behaviour as being overtaken by spirits – they have transformed into ‘witches’ and not wanted in the village. The solution is to kill them. Ignorance and fear. The woman photographed here dancing and smiling for the camera for instance was found abandoned in a cave.
On top of this, 40% of people aged 50+ in South Africa have a functional impairment. They should be receiving medical help. From age 60 they receive $130 per month pension, “money the village eats”. To purchase medicine deprives the village of food – an unacceptable outcome – so the elderly become economic prisoners.
