Elderly African women (or Indigenous women), most especially in the rural outskirts, have proven to be in grave danger with the growing ecological crisis and the lack of provision that has been put into place in order to assist this group of individuals (UN-Women, 2024). In developing countries, these women have pre-existing issues, which include socioeconomic challenges and increased vulnerability regarding their age. This grave danger is also exacerbated by the fact that elderly African women often rely on natural resources for their livelihoods, especially in countries that lack resources. Therefore, when issues of the environment and women arise, I argue elsewhere (Bokaba, 2025) that there is a need to integrate these communities further into these conversations surrounding ecological matters at hand (Gutsa, 2017). I regard intellectual movements such as African ecofeminism as a relevant primary branch in addressing and advocating for underrepresented communities, such as elderly women, in environmental discussions.

 

However, I further contend that there is a need to find an appropriate theory and framework that accurately reflects elderly African women as credible epistemic agents. As contended by Carol Schaefer in her work Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet (2006), there is a great amount of environmental wisdom that elderly women possess in their communities, however, because of the manner in which the power of knowledge is situated globally – elderly women are continuously overlooked. There is a notable gap in literacy where elderly women’s experiences and knowledge about the environment are validated, particularly those aligned with concerns about climate change. Consequently, these women are often noted as passive agents in society who lack interest in participating in environmental discussions compared to the youth. Scholars such as Nomathamsanqa Tisani (1999) and Babalwa Magoqwana (2018) also capture this unfortunate reality by arguing that individuals such as uMakhulu are often forgotten in their communities despite these women being respected individuals in their immediate communities (Danke, 2023). However, I argue that this is a widely held misconception that is representative of the hermeneutical and epistemic injustice that they have endured because of environmental patriarchy.

 

Using a critical analytical methodology, the aim of this presentation is to capture two main gaps in the literature, particularly regarding the intersections of race, gender, age, class, and environmental injustices. Therefore, I will first focus on presenting the need to venerate environmental knowledge that elderly African women particularly share in their communities, which has assisted them in dealing with the ruthless changes of climate change. This type of knowledge is what I consider as “subjugated knowledge” (Hills, 2001). The second half of the presentation will address insights regarding the development of a relevant philosophical conceptual ecological framework that encapsulates the shared intersectional factors faced by elderly women on rural outskirts, especially those consistently placed with the burden of dealing with growing environmental challenges in Africa.