Abstract: With the proportion of the population aged 65 or over increasing steadily. It is important to recognise that older men and women are important and they contribute to society with their wealth of experience and knowledge. By 2050, they are expected to reach the 2 billion mark which will be more than that of children under the age of 14. In Africa, traditional living arrangements are changing and values that used to ensure that older people were cared for and protected are crumbling. The contributions that older people make to their families, communities and society at large are ignored and all too often older people are the victims of abuse even by the very institutions that are supposed to protect them. Development processes that are supposed to meet the needs of all and especially the most vulnerable, routinely exclude older people. Arguably, negative attitudes are older people's biggest problem.