(Aug 4 2025, 2:11 PM)Elsacat https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/aug/04/west-africa-older-women-life-60-sylvia-arthur-interviews
https://archive.ph/YzSJX
Quote:Women across west Africa have a life expectancy of 59. In a rare project, Sylvia Arthur set out to give voice to those who have lived beyond expectation, whose experiences have been largely overlooked.
Thank you so much for sharing this article! <3 These women described in the article are so amazing and resilient!
rambles
For the first woman mentioned in the article, Anyessi Dossou, parts of her story reminded me of my grandmother... I guess it really struck me to read her nephew saying "she's just an old woman who never left her village", etc, because something about the tone reminds me of the way that my grandmother always seemed to be dismissed, ignored, and mocked derisively while alive — sometimes dismissive things were said casually without ill intent, like a fact, while other times it was said with scorn or annoyance — but all of it happened regularly without others ever really caring to ask her about her life, her opinions, her interests, her wants or needs, her comfort or happiness or contentedness or even her pain, etc. Though, I'd like to think that my grandmother's situation was just way different and that the first woman described in the article hopefully has more loving relatives than my grandmother ever did... the fact that her nephew introduced the journalist to her at all and that she got to tell her story, instead of relatives keeping her locked away, sounds like there's still hopefully way more kindness towards her from her family members, than what I've seen in my family. I'm glad that the article showed the nephew acknowledging that there were things that he didn't know about his aunt. To be honest, from what I've noticed, I feel like even where I live in the US, I get the impression that many older women are still overlooked by their families or taken for granted, so I'm not surprised to notice that it's likely more prevalent in many rural areas of the world. At the same time, it heartens me so much to read other different stories of older women in different parts of Africa in this article who are community leaders, in positions of respect, who are highly admired by their family and community, or who have done such cool things in their lives! I love that many of these women had the choice to remain childfree (or that they fought hard to be able to make this choice and succeeded) and the accomplishments they were able to make and the happiness that they were able to obtain as a result of being free to choose and from being childfree. It's inspirational for me tbh.
I loved reading the stories of all these women! I'd read a whole book about each of them tbh if it existed. I always think to myself about how tragic it is that some of the most valuable and insightful voices for understanding history — the voices of older women over 50, 60, 70, 80, etc, especially those in rural villages around the world — are often the most ignored voices too, and we collectively lose out on learning so much important history when these women eventually pass, especially since those of us who do know those women IRL often don't have the resources to record and tell their stories and distribute them more widely, or to communicate as easily about deeper topics, if there's a bit of a language difference or an education difference, etc. I love that Sylvia Arthur took on this project to tell the stories of these women! I'm going to bookmark and check out her website soon!
