BIRD NEWSROOM
MAURITIUS, Nigeria and Ghana are the happiest nations in Africa, with studies indicating young Africans are the most optimistic about the continent’s future prospects.
Those polled in the Africa Youth Survey exuded confidence the continent is headed for an era of economic transformation, energised by rapid technological advances and entrepreneurship.
About three-quarters (80 per cent) of the youth studied believe the ongoing political and economic policy shifts in Africa would change the fortunes of the continent and its inhabitants.
Despite facing serious financial adversity more Africans are happier than initially documented.
According to a recent World Happiness Report, Mauritius is the happiest country in Africa, scoring 6.02 points on a scale from 0 to 10 and ranked 44th among 95 countries globally.
Nigeria scored 5.5, Ghana (5.32), Côte d’Ivoire (5.26), Cameroon (5.24), South Africa (4.94), Zambia (4.84), Morocco (4.8), Tunisia (4.73) and Uganda closing the top 10 with 4.4.
The World Happiness Report surveys the state of global happiness and ranks countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.
The measurement of subjective well-being relies on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions.
According to a World Bank analysis, most of the happiness data used in the studies comes from the European Social Surveys and World Values Surveys, which typically include only a few African countries.
For instance, in the decade to 2013, only nine of the 54 countries in Africa were included in the World Values Survey.
“Similarly, the Ipsos poll included only one country from Africa south of the Sahara, and probably the least representative one: South Africa. Happiness data do however exist for a surprisingly large number of African countries. Based on responses to survey questions that ask respondents to rate their overall happiness with “life-as-a-whole”, the multinational lender said.
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi, professor of philosophy University of Abuja, Nigeria, opines that most Africans draw their happiness from a meaningful sense of community belongingness and positive social relationships.
“This is in part because an individual sense of social worth is tied to contributing to the common social good,” he argues.
“While happiness and meaningful life are not equivalent, there is an African conception of happiness that is grounded in an African psycho-social and cultural worldview, which in turn involves a particular conception of the meaning of human existence.”
