Earning of Titles

Eldership in an Afrikan sense can be based on three things: Chronological, Priesthood and Political Standing, although in different arenas one can supercede the other. Only chronological or age is automatic, although it can be contested if your character or ethics or participation in cultural and spiritual rites are incomplete.

Eldership is something that generally you do not take for yourself. It is something that is given or bestowed upon you. If you have to get other adults to call you Baba or Yeye, in surroundings where others are effortlessly addressed in such manner, you may wonder about your own behavior or the outward perception you provide.

At about mid 30s to late 40s one is a "junior elder" as it were - you should be prepared to lead (with elder approval and oversight) the community in spiritual and political matters. Normally you must have children to also begin working as a true adult in this age category. You are expected to have risen to a point in your development were you are able to take a dream and make it materialize into a reality, to be in control of your emotions and have mastered fundamental communal ethics and spiritual science - especially mastery over your emotions and the desires that eminate from them (need for power, greed, ego, anger, sorrow etc) as you need to be dependable in the eyes of others. This is the EVOLVED form of junior eldership. It may not be in full practice in modern westernized continental or diasporan Afrikan families, but it is the ideal.

Upon reaching your 50s or so, you could generally be considered an "true" Elder. By now you should have made major contributions to the daily running of your community, including rearing children, economic and political contributions etc. At this age you may provide training and insight to others in areas you have MASTERED. Eldership does not convey the right to speak on anything at anytime. In fact elders are supposed to understand they should only speak when they are informed by experience or by spirit or by both. Many elders will retreat from heavy communal duties and explore their own spirituality further and go more indepth into their own spiritual identity, if they havent done so yet. Elders also provide the general oversight over major community activities, using younger junior elders as their eyes, ears, soldiers, frontline priests etc..

This is an abbreviated explanation. I hope its a good beginning for your personal studies. I will try to do a more thorough and extended explanation at a later date. Hopefully those in the know (from experience and not academic sources) will add more.