In ‘Life After 100,’ a Photographer Brings Nigeria's Elders Into Focus

Paul Ukonu's poignant project captures the dignity and wisdom of Nigeria's centenarians while highlighting the urgent need for better elder care.

An old man is seen wearing a cap and sitting sideways as he smiles at the camera.

Paul Ukonu captures members of his community who are older or more in stately, venerable poses.

Photo by Paul Ukonu.


Paul Ukonu's latest visual project, Life After 100, embodies a simple gracefulness. The subjects of his photographs, all individuals aged 100 or nearing that milestone, display varying degrees of self-possession. The collection features a diverse range of people, including chiefs, grandmothers and elderly men who survived the Nigerian Civil War, alongside dignified community members dedicated to preserving long-standing history and traditions. Life After 100 provides a poignant exploration of what it means to age in Nigeria, where preserving history and caring for the elderly are not prioritized.

But Ukonu didn't set out to create a visual project with such dense and thought-provoking themes. He was on a visit to his village when he decided to pay a visit to his only surviving grandmother, whom he hadn't seen in years. "When I got there, I was amazed by how much she remembered me because she was not feeling well for a while," Ukonu says of the pivotal visit. "We had a couple of discussions, and it was a beautiful time, and as a photographer, I just pulled out my camera and said, 'Mama, let me take you a beautiful picture.' Those portraits remain one of my best portraits of all time."

Nearly five months after Ukonu took those photos, he learned that she passed away, his photographs documenting some of the last moments of her life. That moment, Ukonu says, inspired a need to intentionally and actively collect and preserve portraits of the older generation, hence the Life After 100 project.
An elderly woman sits in a plastic chair wearing a bright-colored print wrapper and blouse.

In the Nigerian culture, growing older is the aspiration of many.

Photo by Paul Ukonu.


A fascination with aging

In Nigerian culture, growing older is the aspiration of many. To be an elderly person is to have accrued, by default, years of respect, burnished regard and a renewed place in society. But with only three percent of the population aged 65 and older, in comparison to 70 percent of the population who are under 30 years of age, a huge generational gap is slowly forming, one that finds members of these two generations widely separated and often unable to adapt to each other's histories, and customs.

While working on this project, Ukonu discovered not only the reasons his photo subjects managed to remain mostly healthy at their age — many attributed it to clean eating habits, while others emphasized the importance of living with integrity — but also historical facts he had never learned about in school.

"One of the things that I realized about these people is their wealth of knowledge," Ukonu tells OkayAfrica. "They [also] talked about the [civil] war a lot, especially the older men, because they experienced it. The war did different things to different people; it was a turning point in the history of Nigerians in the southeast. I think these conversations can be vital to the next generation."

Ukonu plans on continuing this project in other parts of the country and hopes that it becomes an exercise in collecting and preserving information, lore and stories that can paint a stronger picture of the past while contextualizing what the future could look like.

"[It] can give us a clearer picture of how it used to be back in the day. For example, the way they dressed, the most popular trade at the time," Ukonu says. "Many conversations can be brought forward, and I think it's going to be very important to engage these elderly people in preserving some of our history that we have completely lost or many of the things that we had no idea about."

An elderly man wearing a native garb with a traditional cap.

Ukonu plans to continue documenting older Nigerians in other parts of the country.

Photo by Paul Ukonu.

Fixing the channel

Projects like Life After 100 are vital for connecting the aging generation with the increasingly younger generations. They help bridge the knowledge gap and foster conversations about the state of elderly care in Nigeria. While working on this project, Ukonu noted the alarming lack of resources or social welfare designed to sustain and care for the elderly.

"We've ignored the old people [in our society] because the conditions that some of them live in are quite unbelievable," he says. "You see that their kids are even in their ‘70s and battling to care for themselves too. For example, there's no water in my community. Reflecting on that situation and my experiences made me think that perhaps we need more NGOs and the government to pay attention."

An elderly man wearing a bright red cap sits staring at the camera.

Many of the subjects in this project are important members of their communities.

Photo by Paul Ukonu.

A2020 report on the state of elderly care in Nigeria revealed that the country's changing socioeconomic and technological climate has decimated support and care systems for the elderly in rural and urban communities. "The breakdown of the extended family system, which used to be the bedrock of support for older persons, coupled with rural-urban migration of the younger generation, have adversely affected the quality of care given to the older persons, hence the need for a well-articulated policy on aging. Older persons are a vulnerable group with peculiar needs and aspirations."

Ukonu is looking to develop a video documentary that will address documentation systems for older people in Nigeria and focus on communities in the Delta region of the country. Ukonu is also eyeing an exhibition and, eventually, a book project. "I want to have at least 100 portraits in that book," he says. "I don't want to overstretch the number of things I want from this project, but I also don't want to limit myself."

​Photo illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi, Okayplayer.
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