For years now, Black people have been having an important conversation about “passing the torch” to younger generations.
Whether in churches, civil rights organizations, political offices, family businesses, or community institutions, more and more people are acknowledging an uncomfortable truth: Too many leaders hold onto positions until death or physical decline forces them out.
And by then, the next generation often receives the torch far too late.
And both sides of the generational aisle have their stances. Older folk say younger people aren’t serious enough and need to step up. Those on the younger side complain that older members of our community are addicted to their titles and positions like drug addicts and refuse to kick the habit.
Far too many Black institutions suffer from poor succession planning. Younger leaders spend decades waiting on the sidelines, watching elders cling to titles and authority into their 80s and 90s, while the community loses precious opportunities to cultivate leadership experience in people during their most energetic and innovative years.
That reality must change.
But there’s another side of this conversation that rarely gets discussed.
If we are going to ask elders to relinquish positions and authority earlier, we must also build a culture that honors, values, protects, and sees elders as essential after they step aside.
And that requires a deep spiritual and cultural shift away from Western ideas of human worth.
The Western sickness around ‘value’
In the Western worldview, a person’s worth is often tied almost entirely to productivity and profit generation.
What job do you have? How much money do you make? What title do you hold? What can you produce?
Once a person retires, slows down physically, or is no longer economically “useful,” society subtly — and sometimes openly — begins treating them as disposable.
Under that mindset, it becomes understandable why so many people hold onto leadership positions until death. If society teaches you that your worth disappears the moment you stop producing, then stepping down can feel like stepping into irrelevance.
That’s a sickness that Blackfolk, like others, have absorbed and internalized through generations of Western indoctrination.
But African ways of knowing offer something far healthier and far more humane.
Reclaiming the ‘living libraries’
In traditional African societies, human worth is inherent and independent of a balance sheet. Aging does not signal a decline in value; instead, it marks an elevation in status. While elders may no longer possess the physical stamina to labor in the fields or lecture for hours, they assume roles that are more sacred. They become the “living libraries,” the spiritual anchors, and the ultimate arbiters of peace.
Consider the Akan proverb: “An elder is a person who has sat on a stool and listened to the elders before him.”
This ancient perspective views aging not as a loss of utility, but as an accumulation of wisdom necessary for community survival. In this ecosystem, the youth respect the elders for their guidance, and the elders respect the youth for their energy and innovation. Because elders are secure in their elevated cultural status, they feel no need to hoard titles. They know their ultimate accountability lies in how well they pour into the next generation.
The elder assignment
In many African traditions, elderhood itself is earned. It’s not simply something granted because a person survived to old age.
An elder is expected to pour wisdom into those coming behind them. To refuse that responsibility is viewed as a failure of duty — not merely to oneself, but to the entire community.
That understanding changes everything. It means passing the torch is not individual surrender, but rather societal salvation. It’s one of the highest callings an elder can achieve.
When our community mimics other communities and devalues elders, we hamper our “living libraries” and their ability to fulfill one of their most sacred duties. And younger generations are paying the price.
Texas opportunity, national implications
That’s why what recently happened in Houston carries such symbolic importance. We now have a real-time opportunity to witness this ancient paradigm in modern American politics.
Congressman Christian Menefee, 38, defeated Congressman Al Green, 78, in the race for Congressional District 18. The race was contentious, emotional, and politically charged. Republicans who delight in division among Black leadership circles are likely celebrating the tension.
But Menefee and Green have a chance to rewrite the script.
Imagine the cosmic shift that would occur across Black World if these two brothers chose to sit down, publicly or privately, for a series of intentional “pass the torch” sessions. What if Green intentionally poured decades of political wisdom into Menefee while Menefee simultaneously honored Green’s years of sacrifice and service, ready to build upon that foundation? What if Black America witnessed not generational warfare, but generational partnership? That would be revolutionary.
They can show that succession is not so much an end to something as it is an entry into new ways of serving the community for both parties involved. It would model something desperately needed throughout Black communities nationwide: elders and younger leaders respecting each other’s roles rather than competing for space.
Blueprint for generational shift
But this transformation cannot rest solely on their shoulders. All of us have work to do.
If Black communities truly want healthier leadership transitions, then we must intentionally rebuild African-centered ways of understanding value, aging, responsibility, and community.
Here are some things to do:
- Re-establish mentorship as sacred work: Elders must intentionally train successors long before retirement or death becomes imminent.
- Publicly honor elders beyond titles: Communities must celebrate elders for their wisdom, guidance, and teaching—not merely for the positions they hold.
- Create structured intergenerational dialogue: Churches, organizations, and families should host regular conversations between elders and younger members focused on wisdom-sharing and collaborative problem-solving.
- Reject productivity-only definitions of worth: We must stop treating people as products, valuable only when they generate money, labor, or status.
- Normalize leadership transitions: Passing leadership should be viewed as a revered rite of passage, honoring all involved.
- Relearn African-centered values: We don’t need to invent entirely new systems of communal care and generational balance. Those ancient African ways of knowing already exist inside of us, waiting to be tapped into.
Menefee and Green have an opportunity to light a fire. But keeping that flame burning will require all of us to embrace the ancestral wisdom which teaches that a community thrives when every generation understands its role and honors the roles of others.
