27 March 2007, by Nana Kofi Acquah in Accra, Ghana. When you are a 25 years old young man whose younger brother just died of Tuberculosis; the same disease had killed your mum and will kill you in about a year's time, what do you think about? These are the circumstances that compelled John Keats, one of England's most prominent Romantic Poets to write his famous Odes.After pondering on life, and what really is important, he concluded in his Ode on a Grecian Urn, that:
 
 
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
 
In many cultures today, aging is no longer regarded a privilege. It's actually treated as a crime. In Ghana, 90% or more of the people who end up being accused of witchcraft are old people. In more advanced societies, they just bunch them together and dump them in a place where they can comfortably forget about them. But no matter how we do it, the fact remains, that modern society will do everything to avoid aging. To be honest, this is no new thing, it is the extents we go to now, that are scary.
 
The ancient Greeks so hated the idea of aging that they introduced a new thinking- 'anthropomorphism'; which is the belief that their gods are immortal, forever youthful and had the ability to morph into whatsoever they wished. Zeus had a reputation for morphing into anything so he could seduce a woman. And hey, remember the story of Archilles? A man who was immortal almost? If he was not so arrogant, he would have lived forever youthful, just like his mum. But after all the fantasy, after all the advertising that tells us use this cream, swallow this pill, drink this juice and you'll stay youthful forever, we wake up one day to the reality that aging is inevitable if we are to stay alive.
 
I spent a lot of my childhood years with my maternal grandmother. She was my inspiration, my muse, my smile, my mentor in every way and although she's now six feet down somewhere in Elmina, what she left me will stick with me forever- a respect for life and beauty.
 
Anytime I step out in the streets of Ghana, I look out for the aged, to see if I can capture a story- a story of truth I can immortalize through the photograph.
 
Click here for Nana Kofi's portraits of the Aged
 
Click here for the Nana Kofi Acquah weblog