1 International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics 1 st Africa Region Conference of Gerontology and Geriatrics Africa Ageing: Beyond Madrid + 10 Cape Town, 2012 October, 17-20, South Africa Time and old age in Senegal : inter-generational misunderstanding Sadio Ba GNING (Université Gaston Berger de Saint Louis – Sénégal) Abstract Differences between older and younger generations in their views about how old age should be managed appear to be a threat to the effectiveness of care of the elderly in Senegal. These differences seem to reflect a time lag between the younger generation, who believe that they can look after their parents by bringing them to live with them, and their parents, who for their part expect to be able to stay on in their familiar social settings. Access to health care, residence, and professional employment are all domains of the lives of the elderly in which these inter-generational conflicts are taking shape, because of an adherence to distinctly different temporal regimes. This article draws on data from cross-referenced interviews with elderly respondents and in urban and rural households in Senegal to demonstrate the gap between these temporal frameworks of old age, and to explore inter- generational differences in practices of caring for people in old age. The aim is to grasp the reality of the living conditions of older people by focussing on aspects of their vulnerability in the family setting, where the care offered by their children may prove to be inappropriate, or may be experienced as involving social isolation, infantilisation or even mistreatment: and to show how the strategies adopted by older people enable them to draw attention to their situation and to maintain themselves in respectable social positions. In the most recent census of Senegal (2002), those aged 60 or over represented only just over 5% of the population. However it is important to analyse the position of these older people for several reasons. Their number is growing steadily and is bound to continue to increase in coming years (Golaz et al. 2012). With the establishment of the Sésame plan they have begun to become a priority issue for public policy, albeit still in a tentative manner. Their situation is one of insecurity, characterised by a lack of universal social welfare provision, and by poor or non-existent pensions and retirement benefits. Despite their central role in the social arena, elderly people are living their lives in a state of vulnerability which is structural and relational. They are involved in exchanges based on reciprocity with their descendants and their social networks, who have exclusive control over their care (Golaz & Antoine, 2011). In the Wolof imaginary, the old are celebrated in a range of vernacular expressions which emphasise their social value and importance 1 .. However even the briefest observation of their situation within the household is enough to establish that theirs is far from an experience of the flourishing and fulfilment of the “Third Age”. How then are we to understand the position of the elderly, and explain the malaise of these guardians of the collective memory, in a society which gives the appearance of revering them in so many ways? How should we go about distinguishing between collective representations and actual practices as regards old age, as between older and younger generations? How do the elderly react? These are the questions which lie behind our decision to examine old age in its relationship to inter-generational time, and in particular in terms of the “young”, women and the old – not that these are the only groups one could study, but because they play a leading role in care of the elderly within the household. 1 In the Wolof ethnic group which is one of the largest in Senegal, there are certain expressions : “mag bour la” (all honour is due to the old), “Kaddou mag téeré la” (the word of the old is sacred), and “mag matna bayyi ci réew” (the old person is the pillar of society).