Age alone does not matter

Most people would prefer to live long lives without becoming old. Because they do not want to be called or viewed as old people, some conceal their age; some dye their hair black when it turns grey, while others do something to their faces so that they should not show wrinkles.

But it is naught for their comfort. A person may be born wealthy by inheriting his or her father’s wealth and remain rich as long as they live, even if they go beyond a century. At every age there is an opportunity to be useful to yourself and to others. A baby is a source of delight to its mother. Watch how a mother often talks to a child like a fellow grown up. A baby born to a happily married couple multiplies the happiness of its parents.

Those who are in ages ranging from 21 to 49 often think they are more fortunate than those who are over 50, let alone those who are over 75. The more vulgar of these people have one word for someone who is showing signs of old age, madala, a chilapalapa or kitchen ‘Kaffir’ language corruption of the Nguni word mdala(elderly gentleman). It is great to be young only if you live disciplined life and only if what you do while you are young prepares you for a satisfactory old age. Many of those who bask in their youthfulness at the same time waste their lives in drunkenness, idleness or in doing those things which can only guarantee them miserable old age.

Time and time again I have met someone who says “Hello old man!”, or who says “Oh God, I am growing old”. When such a person looks about 10 or 20 years younger than I am, I sometimes wonder in engaging self-pity he wants me to become disconsolate because of my greater age.

The best attitude is to have a definite purpose in life, to cherish an ambition which can be attained no matter what your age. Certain goals cannot, of course, be attained outside age spectrums. You can be a successful sports person up to a certain age. It does not mean that when you reach that higher age the earth has buried you, not at all. At every age, there is something useful to do.

More than 30 years ago, I read the motivational books of Napoleon Hill, in which he said great people achieved some of their great works when they were over 60; then I read the profiles of H.A.L. Fischer published his magnificent book History of Europe, when he was 70 years old, and about Leo Tolstoy who wrote his third greatest novel called Resurrection when he was 71.

About 12 years ago as some people addressed me ‘mdala’, others acknowledged me as a historian; I recalled that old people in the past were respected as sources of tribal history, knowledge about customs and healing herbs. Can I not play one of these old roles as a historian? In the year 2004, I had published the first volume of my History of Malawi, from earliest times to the year 1915, the year John Chilembwe staged his abortive revolt while Hastings Kamuzu Banda left his village in Kasungu district pursue higher education abroad.

In February last year once more my granddaughters brought me a birthday cake and a card. At that time, I was correcting the proofs of the second volume ofHistory of Malawi. On October1 the same year, the Malawi Writers Union launched six books newly written by its members. One of those was my History of Malawi Volume II, I was 10 years older than the ages at which Fischer and Tolstoy had published the books I have referred to above.

Old age is an age of decadence only if you choose to live in sloth. Dame Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of Great Britain, wrote of her visit to Malawi.

“I was met at the airport with another flood lit tribal greeting by President Banda. Although probably in his 90’s, I found him in my talk bright, alert—he had built Malawi a poor country into one with sound finances and sensibly developed agriculture.”

Old people who live active lives are younger than young people who waste lives in frivolous pleasures.