Still here: age and generational time

Abstract

The passage of generational time may be one of the most fundamental ways of experiencing ageing; we age in relation to others with whom our lives are intertwined – by becoming a grandmother or losing a father. Those of the oldest generation weaken and pass away, but in that process, they persist – for a while – with the younger generations. In rural eastern Uganda, old people are ‘still here’ for younger generations in many ways. I choose three kinds of time and generational presence to discuss experiences of interaction. First, there is the time together that Alfred Schutz called consociation – being together in time and space, attending to one another. Second, there is the time of finality and transcendence, when family members interact with old people as they pass on to the grave and become shades, ghosts of the dead. Third is the time of generativity, when the legacy of an old person is supposed to continue for the next generation. This article is about the time of generations in consociation, generations cut by death, and generations persisting.