The Role of the Elders. In traditional African societies, education of the young was largely the duty of the older women in the clan. Commonly called the wise elders, these women transmitted family history, agricultural lore, and other knowledge, norms, and values accumulated over time, playing an extremely significant role in the social perpetuation of the family unit. Basic education consisted primarily of passing on knowledge of family bloodlines and names of objects or totems that were sacred to the clan. The elders also trained young adults to identify plants and trees that had medicinal value. Before a young person reached puberty or the age of eligibility for rites-of-passage rituals, he or she had to have acquired this crucial knowledge of the social and natural forms that existed in unison in the universe. Usually this learning also prepared the younger members of...