Respect for Elders
Elders are repositories of wisdom and deserve honor. Their experience and knowledge guide community decisions and maintain cultural continuity.
Elders are repositories of wisdom and deserve honor. Their experience and knowledge guide community decisions and maintain cultural continuity.
When an old person dies, a library burns to the ground.
African Age Hierarchy
Written about in
- What African traditions say about elders and ancestors
The elder is described as the community's store of experience, consulted when decisions are made. The library attaches to this entry the Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ's often-repeated remark that the death of an old person is the burning of a library.