When I was growing up, I had role models, people I looked up to for guidance and I was aspired to be like them. These people affected and impacted my life with the things they did. On top of it all I respected and loved them too.
What can kind of elder is this and what kind of example is he setting?
These people defended me among my peeps’ silly and stupid criticism because I knew who they were through their actions and what they said.
Their actions and speeches moved me that I wanted to be like them so that I can inspire and motivate young people with my actions.
These people were my elders, who had gone through life and had learnt a lot. They were like fountains of wisdom and knowledge because they had experienced life in ways I had not yet understood. To me these were life warriors who had fought the war of life and won with knowledge which I wanted to tap on.
Everyone wanted to relate with them, everyone wanted to brag about the idea that they are heroes or mentors or people who inspire them.
These elders made us feel safe in their generation and ours because they were greater elders in leadership positions. Everyone was interested in finding out how they did it, why they do it and what motivated them.
Why Were They Such Exemplary Leaders?
These people were not afraid to talk about the wrongs of the community and were willing to help improve them it. They lead because it was necessary and they could do it and they did it well. When they spoke the world listened and learnt from them.
Those days we used to make t-shirts with their faces on them and we moved around the streets very proud that we were wearing the faces of our heroes, the faces of the people who inspired us and we wanted the world to know about them.
Those people were either artists, leaders, parents, our elder siblings, our relatives and everyone who had to be a great woman or man with character. These motivated writers to write books about them and these books are being read up to now.
What Happened To Those Kind Of Elders?
Today all we see and hear about our elders are wrong things from corruption to theft, rape, defilement and all the wrong that strains the role modeling concept. It is no longer about what the community wants for one’s self. Personal gain is the agenda no inspiration sent down from above. Wrong morals from nudist on stage by our artists to conspiracies and fights, to everything my mother told me was not acceptable in society.
We no longer have elders to be role models or heroes, no one can mentor or impact inspirations in the generation below us. Nothing for young people to look at, we are all young people with a lost cause as my mother says. “This generation has no future if everyone is for his own and no co-operation or team work.”
We have no one to hold our hands and lead the way, no one to tell us that is wrong or that this is right because those who were supposed to do so have no right or authority to say so because they are not examples to learn from, they don’t know what is right.
We live in a world where our elders get on stage and undress in our faces, we live in a world where these same elders steal from us, rob us in open day light without hiding. We live in a world where bad is considered good and we are happy about it. We are unguided and helpless with no role models or solid examples to back us.
To be continued with;
What was the role of Elders in a community?
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