Chapter 4
‘WAITING FOR HAPPINESS’
IN AFRICA1
VALERIE MØLLER, BENJAMIN J. ROBERTS, HABIB TILIOUINE,
AND JAY LOSCHKY
Valerie Møller, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
v.moller@ru.ac.za
Benjamin J. Roberts, Co-ordinator: South African Social Attitudes Survey and Senior Research Manager:
Democracy, Governance & Service Delivery, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa.
broberts@hsrc.ac.za
84
Habib Tiliouine, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences,
University of Oran, Algeria.
htiliouine@yahoo.fr
Jay Loschky, Regional Director Africa, Gallup.
Jay_Loschky@gallup.com
We thank John Helliwell and Haifang Huang for providing Figure 4.2 that shows the latest 2014-16 happiness evaluations in
Africa and useful comments on this chapter. Support from South Africa’s National Research Foundation is gratefully acknowledged
(NRF unique grant 66960). Views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the NRF or others.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Introduction
Are the people in Africa really among the least
happy in the world? And if African countries do
have a ‘happiness deficit’, what are the prospects
of Africa achieving happiness in the near future?
These are questions we shall try to address in
this chapter.
The World Happiness Report (WHR), published
since 2012, has found that happiness is less
evident in Africa than in other regions of the
world. It reports Gallup World Poll (GWP)
ratings of happiness, measured on the ‘ladder of
life’, a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 indicating greatest
happiness. On the map of the Geography of
Happiness, published in an earlier World Happiness Report Update 2015, the happiest countries
in the world are shaded green, the unhappiest red.
Africa stands out as the unhappiest continent,
being coloured almost entirely in shades of
glaring red (See Fig. 4.1).
In 2017, the WHR reports that average ladder
scores for over four in five African countries are
below the mid-point of the scale (see Fig. 4.2).
And only two African countries have made
significant gains in happiness over the past
decade2. There are also considerable inequalities
in life evaluations in African countries, and this
inequality in happiness has increased over the
past years3.
In this chapter, we shall tentatively seek a number
of explanations for the unhappiness on the
African continent, which is home to about 16%
of the world’s population. It will be no easy
task to identify factors that may have shaped
perceptions of well-being among the 1.2 billion
African people who live in 54 nation states
with different historical, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. Nonetheless, we shall
attempt to describe some of the positive and
negative experiences in the lives of people in
African countries that likely impact on personal
Figure 4.1 Geography of Happiness
85
Source: Helliwell, Huang, & Wang (2015, p. 20)
Figure 4.2: Ranking of Happiness in Africa, 2014-16
Figure 13: Ranking of Happiness in Africa: 2014-16
1. Algeria(6.355)
2. Mauritius(5.629)
3. Libya(5.615)
4. Morocco(5.235)
5. Somalia(5.151)
6. Nigeria(5.074)
7. South Africa(4.829)
8. Tunisia(4.805)
9. Egypt(4.735)
10. Sierra Leone(4.709)
11. Cameroon(4.695)
12. Namibia(4.574)
13. Kenya(4.553)
14. Mozambique(4.550)
15. Senegal(4.535)
16. Zambia(4.514)
17. Gabon(4.465)
18. Ethiopia(4.460)
19. Mauritania(4.292)
20. Congo (Brazzaville)(4.291)
21. Congo (Kinshasa)(4.280)
22. Mali(4.190)
23. Ivory Coast(4.180)
24. Sudan(4.139)
25. Ghana(4.120)
26. Burkina Faso(4.032)
27. Niger(4.028)
28. Uganda(4.004)
29. Malawi(3.970)
30. Chad(3.936)
31. Zimbabwe(3.875)
32. Lesotho(3.808)
33. Angola(3.795)
34. Botswana(3.766)
35. Benin(3.657)
36. Madagascar(3.644)
37. South Sudan(3.591)
38. Liberia(3.533)
39. Guinea(3.507)
40. Togo(3.495)
41. Rwanda(3.471)
42. Tanzania(3.349)
43. Burundi(2.905)
44. Central African Republic(2.693)
0
1
2
Explained by: GDP per capita
86
3
4
5
6
7
Explained by: social support
Explained by: healthy life expectancy
Explained by: freedom to make life choices
Explained by: generosity
Explained by: perceptions of corruption
Dystopia (1.85) + residual
95% confidence interval
Source: Gallup World Poll
31
8
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
well-being. We shall also try to identify the
prospects for change and development that
could spell hope for increasing the happiness of
African people in future.
The ‘patchwork of countries that make up Africa’4
Africa includes 54 countries, the largest number
of nation states on a single continent. Forty-seven of the 166 countries in the Gallup World Poll,
about a quarter, are African countries. South
Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011
following Africa’s longest civil war, is now
included in the poll. The GWP has also collected
data in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, in the
small island state of Comoros, and in both
Somalia and Somaliland, although the latter
region is not officially recognised as an independent state but considered a part of Somalia5. The
2017 World Happiness Report tracks the happiness of 44 African countries polled by Gallup,
including the island states of Mauritius and
Madagascar located off the east coast of Africa
(see Fig. 4.36).
At the outset, it will be important to remember
that Africa is the continent with the longest
history of humankind. We all have ancestors on
the continent. Given the length of time that
Homo sapiens have dwelt in Africa, it is also
the continent with the greatest cultural diversity
and a wealth of ancient civilisations. There are a
multitude of different ethnicities and languages
spoken in Africa. The continent extends from the
Mediterranean Sea in the north to the meeting of
the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in the south, and
from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Suez
Canal and the Red Sea in the east. Climatic
regions range from temperate coastal regions,
deserts and semi-deserts, bushland and savannah,
to tropical jungles over the equator.
Africa’s turbulent history has produced an
extremely diverse cultural and linguistic landscape. Centuries of slavery, colonialism and
apartheid preceded the period of independence.
During the turbulent years following the ‘first
dance of freedom’7 in the 1960s, the new African
nation states experimented briefly with various
styles of self-rule in what has been called the
‘third wave’ of democracy8. The expansion of the
Arabian Islamic Caliphate into North Africa in
the 7th century and the European ‘scramble for
Africa’ in the late 19th century introduced several
of the European and Arabic languages that still
serve as lingua franca and national languages on
the continent. Over the centuries, African people
have adopted some of the customs, technological
advancements and new lifestyles of their former
colonial masters. In recent times, Africa has
leapfrogged older technology to embrace the
latest advancements, such as mobile phones and
solar-powered electricity.
This tumultuous history will have left its imprint
on expectations and perceptions of personal
well-being.9 Given the diversity found on the
continent, it is natural to expect, as is shown in
Figure 4.2, that there will be large differences
among African countries in both life evaluations
and likely reasons for these differences. Africa
watchers frequently note how different the
situations are from one African country to the
next. Contrary to the once commonly held view
that Africa is a single entity or ‘brand’, each
country in fact has unique features that distinguish it from its neighbours.10 For this reason,
there is likely to be a multitude of explanations
for Africa’s ‘happiness deficit’. In this chapter
we can only begin to search for plausible factors
that may have undermined Africa’s potential for
happiness and satisfaction with life.
The quality of life of African people can be
observed from a number of different perspectives.
There have been many frames of reference for
the narrative of Africa since independence
ranging from the dismissive ‘basket case’ to the
‘structural adjustment’ imposed by the International Monetary Fund during the 1980s followed
by debt forgiveness in the 1990s. The ‘Africa
Rising’ narrative in the new millennium was
followed by the global economic recession; and
lately Africa has become part of the so-called
87
Figure 4.3: Map of Africa with Average Happiness Scores
Tunisia
Morocco
Algeria
Western Sahara
Mauritania
Cape Verde
Libya
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Gambia
Eritrea
Chad
Sudan
Central African
Republic
South
Sudan
Djibouti
(Somaliland)
Burkina
Faso
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Egypt
Nigeria
Cote
d'Ivoire
Sierra Leone
Liberia
Ghana
Togo
Benin
Equatorial Guinea
Sao Tome & Principe
Cameroon
Ethiopia
Somalia
Democratic
Republic
of the Congo
(Kinshasa)
Gabon
Republic of
the Congo
(Brazzaville)
Uganda
Kenya
Rwanda
Tanzania
Burundi
Seychelles
Comoros
Average happiness score
2014-2016
Angola
Mozambique
Zambia
5.5-6.4
5.0-5.4
4.5-4.9
4.0-4.4
Malawi
Madagascar
Zimbabwe
Namibia
Botswana
Mauritius
3.5-3.9
2.7-3.4
no data
Swaziland
South Africa
Lesotho
Source: Gallup World Poll data
88
‘war on terror’. Each of these narratives homes in
on a different set of factors that may determine
the fortunes of Africa and its people.11
Twenty-first century Africa is no longer associated
only with ‘endless famine, disease, and dictatorship’. The ‘Africa Rising’ narrative, which
overturned earlier stereotypes, projected a
continent with a growing urban middle class
market with new consumer appetites.12 Africa’s
youthfulness promised to be an asset in an
increasingly ageing global society. The continent’s
rich mineral wealth had not been exhausted
and its agricultural land was still waiting to be
exploited. In the new millennium, foreign direct
investment in Africa eclipsed development aid
for the first time since the colonial era.13
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Outline of this chapter
We start our examination by first reflecting on
the paucity of data on African happiness. We
then discuss local reactions of disbelief to some
other polls that have found African countries to
be among the happiest, in contrast to the Gallup
World Poll findings reported above. We next
consider whether Africa’s happiness deficit since
independence14 may in fact be a long-standing
one, in which case, it may take more time to
remedy. Then we examine how changes in the
lives of African people under democratic rule
have affected quality of life on the continent.
In particular, we review how aspects of good
governance have affected the well-being of
citizens. Finally, we consider how African people
have managed to live with their ‘happiness
deficit’ in anticipation of the good life.
Data for Africa
The GWP data on happiness for Africa is a
valuable source of information on happiness in
developing countries in Africa and serves as our
point of departure. (See Technical Box 1: Gallup
methodology in Africa). However, a major
challenge for us when reflecting on Africa’s
well-being has been sourcing further data in
support of our arguments. Our chapter will
focus on all countries in Africa—unlike studies
that divide Africa into sub-Saharan Africa and
North Africa, or the extended region of MENA
(Middle East and North Africa). While data
coverage for Africa has improved over the past
decades, there is still a dearth of social indicators
that cover the whole of the continent. In particular, there is a shortage of trend data that would
help us track the relationship between happiness
and the factors that we think might have influenced happiness over time.15
We have opted for a practical solution. Where
possible we draw on Africa’s home-grown data.
A useful source for our purpose is the Afrobarometer, which collects subjective indicators that
give voice to ordinary citizens on the continent.16
Other home-grown initiatives that provided
useful pointers for our examination are the
Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)17
that covers all 54 countries on the continent
based mainly on objective indicators, and the
Arab Barometer, launched in 2005, which covers
countries in North Africa and the Middle East.18
Do Gallup Happiness Ratings Ring
True in Africa?
Before we consider what may be holding back
African happiness, it will be important to know
whether WHR reports on life evaluations in
African countries ring true to people living on
the continent. Measures of subjective well-being,
other than Gallup World Poll ones, have, on
occasion, ranked African countries such as
Ghana and Nigeria among the happiest in the
world. In these cases, it seems that local reactions
to media reports on such high happiness rankings were mixed. In the Ghanaian case, political
leaders reportedly took credit for promoting the
well-being in their country, while their citizens
tended to doubt that the scores were credible,
and debated their validity. Similarly, Nigerian
scholars referred to a ‘Nigerian paradox’ when
their country achieved less than credible very
high happiness rankings in international studies.
When Ghanaians heard that their country
ranked among the ten happiest countries in the
world in a news story circulating on the internet
in 2006, there was excitement but also mainly
disbelief. In her contribution to a handbook
on happiness across cultures, Vivian Afi Abui
Dzokoto recalls that the rating was received with
mixed feelings of pride and disbelief that triggered
debate on what ‘really mattered’ for well-being
in Ghana. ‘Did this statistic take into consideration
the state of life in the country: the unemployment rates, traffic, state of roads, and the price
of gasoline? Was it because Ghana was a very
religious country? Or was it family values
89
Technical Box 1: Gallup Methodology in Africa
Introduced in 2005, the Gallup World Poll is
conducted in approximately 140 countries every
year worldwide, including 40 in Africa, tracking
attitudes toward law and order, institutions and
infrastructure, jobs, well-being, and other topics.
Gallup surveys approximately 1,000 residents
per country, targeting the entire civilian, non-institutionalized population, aged 15 and older. In
2016, face-to-face surveys were used in all of
Sub-Saharan Africa and most of North Africa.
In Libya, telephone survey methodology has
been used since 2015 owing to the country’s
high rate of mobile phone coverage and ongoing instability which has made it too dangerous
to use face-to-face interviewers.
In countries where face-to-face surveys are conducted in Africa, the first stage of sampling is
the identification of 100 to 125 ultimate clusters
(sampling units), consisting of clusters of
households. Sampling units are stratified by
population size and geography and clustering is
achieved through one or more stages of sampling. Where population information is available, sample selection is based on probabilities
proportional to size (PPS) sampling, otherwise
simple random sampling is used. Samples are
drawn independent of any samples drawn for
surveys conducted in previous years. In most
African countries, national coverage is at or
near 100%. However, national coverage is lower
in countries such as Nigeria (96%), Somalia
(68%), and South Sudan (56%) where insecurity
makes interviewing dangerous in specific
regions or neighbourhoods.
90
Data weighting is used to ensure a nationally
representative sample for each country and is
intended to be used for calculations within a
country. First, base sampling weights are constructed to account for household size. Weighting by household size (number of residents
aged 15 and older) is used to adjust for the probability of selection, as residents in large house-
holds will have a disproportionately lower probability of being selected for the sample. Second,
post-stratification weights are constructed.
Population statistics are used to weight the data
by gender, age, and, where reliable data are
available, education. At country level in Africa,
each survey carries a margin of sampling error
ranging from a low of ±2.6 percentage points to
a high of ±5.4 percentage points.
The Gallup World Poll is translated into 85 languages throughout Africa and attempts are
made to conduct interviews in the language the
respondent speaks most comfortably. When at
least 5% of a national population considers a
language to be their most comfortable language,
a new language is added to the survey.
Where necessary, Gallup seeks the permissions
of national, regional, and local governments. In
many African locations, permission from Chiefs
and Elders must also be sought in order to gain
access to rural areas or villages. In Somalia,
permission is obtained not only from authorities
in Somaliland, Puntland, and the Central
Government in Mogadishu, but also from
so-called “emerging states” such as Jubbaland
Administration and South-West State.
Following 4-5 day training courses in capital
cities, interviewers are sent across the country
to reach ultimate clusters. While public transportation is used in many cases, it is often
necessary in some regions to rent 4x4’s owing
to poor infrastructure and the remoteness of
many sampling areas. In South Sudan, all
interviewers not working in Juba must be
flown to provincial towns immediately following
training as road networks make travel exceedingly difficult. While at least 30% of interviews
are accompanied in-person or back-checked by
supervisors in all countries, data is also monitored remotely throughout fieldwork by quality
control personnel utilising GPS data and interviewer productivity metrics.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
or the tropical climate?’19
In the case of the Nigerian happiness ‘paradox’,
Aaron Agbo and his colleagues, writing in the
same handbook on cross-cultural happiness,
thought that respondents who indicated that
they felt happy might not have meant they were
truly happy with their situation, but rather they
felt that reporting otherwise ‘could only aggravate the matter’. Saying you are happy might
have been a way ‘of counter-acting everyday
negative life experiences’, they speculated.20
A decade after Cantril’s study, the Gallup-Kettering study conducted in the 1970s, the largest
global study of well-being of its time, found that
African countries produced the lowest ladder
of life scores, apart from India. A combined
sample of eleven sub-Saharan African countries
scored 4.61 in the 1970s, a ladder rating not very
different from the most recent Gallup World Poll
ladder ratings reported in WHR 2017 for the
same eleven African countries that range from
3.35 to 5.07.23
Africa’s Quest for Positive Change
Africa’s History of
Depressed Happiness
Well-being may reflect the history of a region.21
This may especially be the case for Africa that
has a short history of self-rule. Low levels of
subjective well-being are likely not to be a recent
development in Africa. Indeed, the first international studies of happiness already found that
evaluations of life were less positive in African
countries south of the Sahara than elsewhere.
The WHR uses the ladder of life measure
introduced by Hadley Cantril in the early 1960s
as the yardstick for ranking countries on global
happiness. Going back in time, Cantril’s classic
study of The Pattern of Human Concerns in 13
countries conducted in the early 1960s included
two African countries: Nigeria represented an
‘underdeveloped giant’ along with Brazil and
India, while Egypt was among three samples
drawn in the Middle East. It seems that the
country evaluations reported by Cantril in the
1960s for Egypt and Nigeria have not shifted
much in fifty years. The highest score is 10 on
Cantril’s 0 to 10 ladder of life scale. Egypt’s
mean ladder score was 5.5 in Cantril’s 1960s
study and 4.735 as recorded in this year’s WHR
2017 (see Fig. 4.2). Nigeria’s ladder ratings in
the two periods are 4.8 in Cantril’s 1960s study
and 5.074 in WHR 2017 (see Fig. 4.2).22
Of importance for our discussion here is that
the Gallup-Kettering study of the 1970s also
asked respondents if they thought they would be
happier if things could be changed about their
lives. The desire for change was greatest by far
in sub-Saharan Africa. Some 90% of African
respondents wished for change in their lives and
the vast majority in this group wanted not a
‘few’, but ‘many’ things to change to improve
their lives.24
There can be no doubt that the most profound
changes in the lives of African people were
caused by the ‘winds of change’ that swept
through the continent in the late 1950s and early
1960s, bringing independence to formerly subjugated peoples. On gaining independence from
colonial rule, most countries on the continent
experimented with democratic rule that was to
restore dignity and freedom for Africa’s people.
Why should democracy be important for African
well-being? One argument is that Africa’s
approach to democracy focuses on ‘horizontal
equality’ among diverse cultural and ethnic
groups rather than on ‘individual’ or vertical
rights.25 Thus, Africa’s democracy project might
be said to be in tune with a continent that has
always nurtured collectivist values, such as
African humanism. It ensured societal well-being in the past and still continues to do so today.26
91
In the next sections, we shall review attitudes
to democracy and citizen evaluations of good
governance. Later we shall return to discuss
threats to an inclusive African democracy, in the
form of authoritarian leaders (Africa’s so-called
‘Big Men’), patronage systems, and corruption,
all of which may have negative impacts on
well-being on the continent.
Democracy, Good Governance, and
the Promise of Prosperity
Africa is said to have embraced democracy ‘in
fits and starts’ since the winds of change blew
through the continent in the 1960s. Although
the newly independent states adopted the Western liberal democratic systems of their former
colonial masters, in due course authoritarian
rule became the order of the day. By the end of
the 1980s, only Botswana, The Gambia and
Mauritius still had democratic systems. Democracy
was generally restored in the 1990s, and today,
the vast majority of Africa’s countries are multiparty democracies, at least in name if not in
practice. The African Union’s Vision 2063
envisages a prosperous and peaceful Africa that
promotes democratic governance. Free and fair
elections are seen as a test of the strength of
Africa’s democracies and more than a third of
states on the continent were due to hold elections
in 2016.27
92
Africa’s ‘Third Liberation’. Now that Africa has
liberated itself from both colonial and authoritarian rule, African countries are advised to
achieve the so-called ‘third liberation’, that is, to
free themselves from poor governance in order
to accelerate development and prosperity.28
International evidence suggests there is a strong
link between good governance and well-being.
Societies that have high levels of well-being tend
to be economically developed, to have effective
governments with low levels of corruption, to
have high levels of trust, and to be able to meet
citizens’ basic needs for food and health.29
Supply and demand for democracy in Africa.
Afrobarometer surveys have found that the
most common meaning of democracy in Africa
relates to civil liberties, especially freedom of
speech.30 And successive waves of the Afrobarometer show that Africans consider democracy
to be preferable to any other form of government, disapproving of authoritarian options
including one-party, military and one-man rule
(see Fig. 4.4A left). However, this demand for
democracy is not matched by supply over the
course of fifteen years. The African countries
that favour democratic rule outweigh those that
are satisfied with democracy and regard their
country as a democracy (see Fig. 4.4B right).
Importantly, Figures 4.5 and 4.6 show that
satisfaction with democracy is weakly positively
associated with happiness, while a ‘democratic
deficit’—the gap between preference for democracy and satisfaction with its functioning—
depresses levels of happiness. Looking back over
the past decade, Figure 4.7 indicates that gains
and losses in satisfaction with democracy relate
to corresponding changes in happiness.
The material underpinnings of democracy and
African well-being
It is important to note that African citizens
expect much more of their democracies than just
civil liberties such as free and fair elections. They
are just as likely to associate democracy with
better living conditions—with basic services such
as clean water, electricity, and housing—as with
regular elections, competing political parties, and
freedom to criticise government.31
Given the continent’s history of colonialism,
there was hope that democracy would restore
dignity to African people and improve their life
circumstances. Africa’s independence from
colonial rule promised material benefits—the
decent standard of living that provides dignity. It
is telling that an improved or decent standard of
living was the greatest hope expressed by Nigerians participating in Cantril’s 1960s study. Before
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Figure 4.4: Trends in the Demand for and Supply of Democracy, 12 African Countries, 1999-2015
Source: Afrobarometer Rounds 1-6, Online Appendix, Table A4.1.
Figure 4.5: Satisfaction with Democracy and Happiness, 34 African Countries, 2013-2015
93
Sources: Afrobarometer Round 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.2.
Figure 4.6: Democratic Deficits and Happiness, 34 African Countries, 2013-2015a
Sources: Afrobarometer Round 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.2.
a. The democratic deficit is the percentage point difference between the share stating that democracy is preferable and those that
report satisfaction with democratic functioning. The larger the score, the greater the deficit.
Figure 4.7: Changes in Satisfaction with Democracy and Happiness, 15 African Countries, 20052015a
94
Sources: Afrobarometer Rounds 3 and 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.3.
a. Changes refer to absolute changes in levels of satisfaction with democracy and happiness between the two periods. The results
are confined to those countries with available Afrobarometer and Gallup data in both time periods.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
giving their life evaluations, 69% of Nigerian
respondents stated they aspired to a better
standard of living, while 60% worried that they
might not achieve a decent standard of living.32
Waiting for the ‘end of poverty’33. The Afrobarometer uses the Lived Poverty Index34 to measure
freedom from the experience of deprivations in
everyday life. Respondents are asked whether
they have gone without six basic necessities in
the past year, ranging from food and water to
electricity in the home. There is a strong negative association between happiness and lived
poverty. African countries that have experienced
less lived poverty report higher levels of happiness
in the Gallup World Poll (see Fig. 4.8). Burundi,
one of the world’s poorest nations, that is struggling to emerge from a 12-year ethnic-based civil
war, scores highest on Afrobarometer’s lived
poverty and lowest on happiness. In contrast,
Algeria, a leading North African oil-exporting
country, and Mauritius, a strongly democratic
island state, have low lived poverty and are the
two happiest countries on the continent in the
GWP. Other North African countries follow
close behind Algeria and Mauritius in their lived
poverty and happiness ratings.
Figure 4.9 indicates that changes in lived poverty
and happiness over time are associated. For
example, Zimbabwe, formerly a breadbasket in
southern African and now often regarded as a
failed state where unemployment and poverty are
endemic and political strife and repression are
commonplace, has experienced some poverty
relief in daily life over the past decade. The drop
in Zimbabwe’s lived poverty score of 0.61 points
in Figure 4.9 is matched by a corresponding
increase of 0.64 points in its happiness score.
Figure 4.8: Happiness and Lived Poverty in 34 African Countries, 2013-15
95
Sources: Afrobarometer Round 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.4.
Note: In three instances (Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland), there was no available happiness data point in the 2013-2015
period, so we instead utilized the data for the 2009-2011 period instead. In the case of Morocco, there was no lived poverty data
for the 2014-2015 period, so we relied on Afrobarometer round 5 data for 2011-2013 in this case.
Figure 4.9: Changes in Happiness and Lived Poverty in 15 African Countries, 2005-15a
Sources: Afrobarometer Rounds 3 and 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.5.
a. Changes refer to absolute changes in levels of lived poverty and happiness between the two periods. The results are confined
to those countries with available Afrobarometer and Gallup data in both time periods.
96
Infrastructure development and happiness.
Developing the continent’s infrastructure is a
major challenge that has not kept pace with
population growth. The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa estimates that
the continent would need to invest up to $93
billion a year until 2020 for capital investment
and maintenance.35 Africa’s huge backlog of
infrastructure may play a more important role in
determining personal well-being in Africa than
in the more developed countries of the West,
whose higher levels of happiness are indicated
in shades of green in the Geography of Happiness map (see Fig. 4.1 above).
Afrobarometer reports that on average across 35
African countries, only about two-thirds of the
people live in communities with an electric grid
(65%) and/or piped water infrastructure (63%),
and less than one in three have access to sewage
(30%), while more than three times as many
have access to cellular phone service (93%). Only
about half (54%) live in zones with tarred or
paved roads. Regional comparisons show that
North Africa has the best availability of all five
services36, which may be reflected in their higher
than average happiness ratings on the continent
(see Figs. 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 above).
It is telling that in 1994 the government of
South Africa, the last country on the continent to
gain its independence, promised a ‘better life’ to
meet its newly enfranchised black citizens’
aspirations for housing, running water, and
electricity. Some twenty years later, there is still
a marked difference between what determines
happiness among black and white South Africans.
Economists report that better access to infrastructure and public goods increases happiness
among black South Africans, while determinants
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Figure 4.10: Satisfaction with State Provided Infrastructural Services and Happiness in
34 African Countries, 2013-15a
Sources: Afrobarometer Round 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.6.
a. In three instances (Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland), there was no available happiness data point in the 2013-2015
period, so we instead utilized the data for the 2009-2011 period instead. The index is simple average of the percent that the
government is doing very or fairly well in handling four infrastructural services, namely: roads and bridges, electricity, water and
sanitation, and basic health.
of the happiness among mainly wealthier white
South Africans mirrors those typically found in
Western developed research settings.37
Afrobarometer surveys highlight the importance
of infrastructure development for the African
experience of everyday well-being throughout
the continent. The latest round of surveys found
that the lived poverty index had declined in
two-thirds of the 36 countries surveyed by
Afrobarometer. Countries that had made progress in developing basic infrastructure were
more likely to have experienced declines in lived
poverty.38 Figure 4.10 shows that satisfaction
with the state’s development of infrastructure
in African countries is also positively associated
with happiness.
Infrastructure and democracy. While poor
infrastructure and lack of service delivery may
contribute to lived poverty and depressed happiness, it may also undermine Africa’s democracy
project. A case in point is South Africa’s relatively
new democracy. The latest Afrobarometer survey
conducted there suggests that South African
citizens might be willing to give up their democratic rights in favour of their living conditions
being improved. While almost two-thirds (64%)
of South African respondents thought that
democracy was preferable to any other kind of
government, a similarly high percentage (62%)
stated they would be ‘very willing’ or ‘willing’
to give up regular elections to live under a
non-elected government capable of ensuring law
and order and service delivery.39 A growing
global trend towards authoritarianism could lead
to a resurgence of such regimes in Africa.40
97
Africa’s ‘Big Men’, Authoritarian
Regimes, and Discontent
Three decades after its restoration in the 1990s,
Africa’s democratic process is still very fragile.
Although the era of military coups, dictatorships
and authoritarianism may be over, there are still
a number of African leaders who resort to
manipulating electoral and constitutional mechanisms and intimidating citizens in order to
prolong their stay in power.41 The Ibrahim Prize
for good governance in Africa, instituted by the
Mo Ibrahim Foundation in 2006, goes to former
African leaders who have honoured their country’s
constitutionally mandated term limits, and have
dedicated their rule to improving people’s lives.
Only five winners have been selected in the ten
years since 2007.42
Africa’s longest-ruling leaders are to be found
across the continent. Fifteen leaders of 48
African countries that hold regular elections
have served more than two terms or indicated
their intention to do so in 2016. Africa’s ‘Big
Men’, who personalise power, often have poor
human rights records and use repression to
hang on to power.43 They gain support through
Africa’s widespread patronage system.44 A
number of Africa’s authoritarian regimes have
survived because they have provided political
stability or support for the ‘war on terror’, thus
attracting the foreign aid and investment needed
for development.45
98
An example of a country valued for its political
stability after years of conflict is business-friendly Rwanda. The country was chosen to host the
2016 World Economic Forum on Africa in its
capital city Kigali in recognition of its role as a
model for regional development.46 Rwanda’s
President Paul Kagame, a leader in Rwanda’s
post-genocide government since 1994, gained
approval by referendum in 2015 to stand for an
unprecedented third term in 2017. The controversial vote on the country’s constitution means
that Kagame could be in power until 2034 in a
country with unusually low life evaluations
relative to its economic success (see Fig. 4.2).
President Kagame is said to have remarked that
African countries that change their leaders too
often have not fared as well as his country. He
may not be alone in claiming that authoritarian
rule is a more efficient form of democracy in
less developed parts of the world.47
Citizens in a number of African countries
appear to share President Kagame’s view that
strong leadership is in the interest of political
stability and economic development. The latest
Afrobarometer surveys show that views are
divided on governance issues, such as one-man
rule and term limits (see Table 4.1, top). On
average, one-man rule is rejected by four out of
five citizens, while only 11% are in favour, and
three-quarters support two-term limits for their
president. However, the differences between
highest and lowest values of support and rejection are striking. Over 90% in Benin, Gabon,
and Burkina Faso were in favour of constitutional two-term limits. In Mozambique, a country
still suffering from the effects of a 16-year civil
war that ended in 1994, near-equal proportions
were against (35%) and in favour (30%) of
one-man rule and only 50% supported a term
limit. Noteworthy is that all four countries have
experience of longer-term leadership.48
Trust and Corruption
Perceptions of the trustworthiness and honesty
attributed to Africa’s leaders and civil servants
vary across the continent (see Table 4.1, middle).
Highest and lowest values differ by at least 50
percentage points between countries. Within
countries, trust in the president is consistently
greater than trust in other members of the
ruling party (Malawi and South Africa are
exceptions). Similarly, government officials are
consistently seen to be more corrupt than those
in the office of the president (Gabon is an
exception49). Nigeria was voted among the most
corrupt countries on all three indicators recorded
in Table 4.1.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Table 4.1: Support for Authoritarian Rule in Africa, Political Trust, and Perceived Corruption, Average and Range of Values Across 36 Countries, 2014-15 (%)
African
average
Lowest
value
Highest
value
Diff high to
low
Three most
positive
ratings
Three most
negative
ratings
Reject one-man rule
80
35
93
59
MUS, SEN,
BEN
MOZ, EGY,
ALG
Support one-man rule
11
3
30
27
MUS, SLE,
TZA
MOZ, SDN,
TUN
Agree that Constitution should limit
president to a maximum of two terms
75
50
93
43
BEN, GAB,
BFA
MOZ, LSO,
BWA
Trust President somewhat / a lot
56
29
82
53
EGY, BDI,
NER
STP, MWI,
LBR
Trust Ruling Party somewhat / a lot
47
20
72
52
BDI, NAM,
NIG
GAB, LBR,
NGA
All / most of government officials
corrupt
All / most of those in Office of
President corrupt
Corruption increased a lot / somewhat
in last year
Government doing very / fairly well in
fighting corruption
39
15
70
55
CPV, MUS,
STP
LBR, NGA,
GAB
31
13
63
51
CPV, TZA,
BDI
LBR, BFA,
NGA
58
26
83
57
MOR, BFA,
EGY
RSA, NGA,
GHA
30
10
54
44
BWA, SWZ,
LSO
MDG, GAB,
ZWE
Source: Afrobarometer Round 6, Online Appendix, Table A4.7.
Note: ALG=Algeria; BEN=Benin; BFA=Burkina Faso; BWA=Botswana; BDI=Burundi; CPV=Cape Verde; EGY=Egypt; GAB=Gabon; GHA=Ghana; LSO=Lesotho; LBR=Liberia; MDG=Madagascar; MWI=Malawi; MUS=Mauritius; MOR=Morocco; MOZ=Mozambique; NAM=Namibia; NER=Niger; NGA=Nigeria; RSA=South Africa; SLE=Sierra Leone; SEN=Senegal; STP=Sao Tome &
Principe; SDN=Sudan; SWZ=Swaziland; TZA=Tanzania; TUN=Tunisia; ZWE=Zimbabwe
On average, 58% of respondents across all
Afrobarometer countries surveyed thought
corruption had increased in their country in
the past year, while less than one in three
approved of their government’s efforts to fight
corruption (see Table 4.1 bottom). Exceptionally,
54% in Botswana, considered to be a stable
democracy, thought the government was doing
well in fighting corruption. Noteworthy is that
corruption might be easier to contain in smaller
island states, such as Cape Verde, Mauritius,
and Sao Tome & Principe, where Afrobarometer
respondents indicated there was less corruption
or approved of their governments’ fight
against corruption.
Our examination of the relationship between
happiness and corruption (not shown here)
suggests that it is not a recent increase or
decrease in perception of corruption that counts,
but rather longer-term changes. Over the past
decade, happiness improved markedly in a
number of countries where citizens saw a reduction in corruption at the top level of leadership
(see Fig. 4.11) and stronger government performance in fighting corruption (see Fig. 4.12).
‘Africa Uprising’50
The question is how long African citizens will
support their strongmen and long-serving
leaders. Five years ago, the so-called Arab Spring
of 2011 saw regime change in North African
countries that may have caused a ripple effect on
99
Figure 4.11: Changes in Happiness and Perceived Corruption in the Office of the President in
15 African Countries, 2005-15a
Sources: Afrobarometer Rounds 3
and 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix,
Table A4.8.
a. Changes refer to absolute
changes in levels of perceived
corruption in the Office of the
President and happiness between
the two periods. The results are
confined to those countries with
available Afrobarometer and Gallup data in both time periods.
Figure 4.12: Changes in Happiness and Perceived Government Performance in Fighting Corruption
in 15 African Countries, 2005-15a
Sources: Afrobarometer Rounds 3
and 6 and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix,
Table A4.8.
a. Changes refer to absolute
changes in the shares perceiving
government performed very /
fairly well in fighting corruption
and levels happiness between
the two periods. The results are
confined to those countries with
available Afrobarometer and Gallup data in both time periods.
100
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
the continent. When Burkina Faso’s dictator of
27 years, Blaise Compaoré, was toppled in
November 2014, an Africa watcher foresaw that
a season of protest might have hitched a ride on
the Sahara’s Harmattan, a wind that blows south
every November.51 Interestingly, the Gallup
World Poll conducted a year prior to the coup in
Burkina Faso found awareness of the Arab
Spring was greater in Burkina Faso than in other
sub-Saharan countries.52
It may be significant that a further long-term
president was almost ousted in 2016. Yahya
Jammeh had boasted he would rule The Gambia
for a billion years.53 In December, his 22-year
authoritarian rule was set to end by a shock
election result. The event was initially heralded as
a triumph for African democracy until Jammeh
later disputed the election outcome. He was
finally forced to step down in early 2017.54
Youth have always been in the forefront of
protest. In the past two years, youth and student
protests have swept through many countries
south of the Sahara, including in Ethiopia where
a state of emergency was imposed in mid-2016.55
It is significant that the student protests there
and in South Africa have been interpreted as a
clash between generations.56
In 2016, Afrobarometer reported that their latest
round of surveys found 11% of youth reported
having been involved in at least one protest
action in the past year.57
The disconnect: Africa’s ‘youth bulge’ and
ageing leaders
A problem for Africans who yearn for change
and greater life chances is that there is a dramatic
disconnect between Africa’s longest serving
leaders and the continent’s youth.58 The age
Figure 4.13: Trends in Mobile Cellular Telephone Subscriptions and Individual Internet Usage
per 100 Inhabitants in Africa, 2005-16a
101
Sources: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database, Online Appendix, Table A4.9.
a. The dashed lines represent the World average on the two ICT indicators.
difference between leaders and the youth is
striking. While the average age of Africa’s
presidents is estimated to be about 70 years,
some 70% of African citizens are younger than
30 years. Most of Africa’s leaders will have been
born before the age of television and mobile
phones and before the end of the colonial era.
Given this generation gap, there is likely to be
a mismatch between youth’s expectations of
democracy, and the reality that confronts them.59
Social media played an important role in the Arab
Spring and has continued to do so in more recent
youth protests across Africa. Figure 4.13 shows
that mobile phones have captured the imagination
of the people on the continent. Africa’s mobile-cellular telephone and internet usage is fast
catching up with the rest of the world.
Youth voting with their feet
At the heart of the Arab Spring were disgruntled youth seeking democratic representation
and economic participation. Political analysts
have warned that responses to Africa’s current
youth revolts may not necessarily meet protestors’ demands for greater access to education
and to skills that will lead to employment.60
An important question, therefore, is what will
happen to Africa’s youth who do not find jobs
in their countries of birth by their mid- to late
twenties. Will they despair, join extremist
groups, or emigrate?
102
and working on the mines became a rite of
passage for young Xhosa men. Working underground, they earned both prestige and the money
to pay bride wealth in order to get married.62
Fast forward to 2016. Young men in a rural
village in The Gambia, where President Jammeh’s
authoritarian rule was challenged in the December
elections, see the need to risk a perilous 4,800
km journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean in search of work in Europe. They hope
to earn money in order to be able to marry a
local young woman and gain respect in their
community. As many as 600 of the approximately 4,000 villagers have risked this so-called
‘Back Way’.63
Youth working overseas earn not only to benefit
themselves but also to support their families in
Africa. The remittances sent home by nearly 140
million Africans living abroad currently surpass
Western foreign aid.64 Africans fleeing conflict
in their countries or seeking a better life have
overwhelmed Europe in the past year. Since
2014, an estimated 80,000 of the passengers on
the Mediterranean people-smuggling boats have
come from sub-Saharan Africa.
‘Asinamali’ 65—we have no money!
Africa’s increasingly IT-connected youth will
have expectations of a higher standard of living
than their parents. Not all rural youth are content to till the soil as past generations have done
and will try to find greener pastures in urban
areas or, in some cases, even overseas. African
people have always been on the move.61
Africa will need to provide jobs for its youth if it
is to meet their aspirations for the good life. In
2010 there were roughly 200 million Africans
between 15 and 24 years of age and this number
could rise to over 450 million by 2050. According to an African Development Bank report,
young people aged 15 to 24 constitute 37% of
Africa’s labour force but make up 60% of the
continent’s total.66 It is estimated that 18 million
jobs will need to be created every year just to
accommodate Africa’s current jobseekers.67
Consider that South Africa’s migrant labour
system, introduced during the colonial era,
forced rural men to work on faraway mines to
earn the cash to pay a hut tax. In the twentieth
century, labour circulation became a way of life
The latest Afrobarometer identified unemployment as a top concern in African countries (see
Fig. 4.14). Some Africa watchers argue that the
continent is already falling behind in providing
education and employment for its youth. The
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Figure 4.14: The Most Important Problem Facing African Countries, 2013-15 (%)a
Drought and commodity prices as risk factors
for ‘Africa Uprising’
It might be worth considering that economic
recessions following periods of drought have
played a critical role in fueling the continent’s
discontent, as in the cases of the Arab Spring
and the Ethiopian protests. Drought may well
spark further uprisings. Africa has a long history
of extreme weather patterns70, which is likely to
be aggravated by climate change in the 21st
century.71 In 2016, countries in east and southern
Africa experienced severe drought conditions
that have negatively affected food production
and increased food prices. It was anticipated that
the drought would be followed by severe flooding in the region.72
Source: Afrobarometer (2016) Highlights of Round 6 survey
findings from 36 African countries, p.2, Online Appendix,
Table A4.10.
a. Respondents were asked: In your opinion, what are the
most important problems facing this country that government
should address? Respondents were allowed to provide up to
three responses. The bars in the figure show the percentage
of respondents who mentioned each problem among their top
three challenges.
African Development Bank has pointed out that
in 2012 only a quarter of young African men
and just 10% of young African women managed
to get jobs in the formal economy before they
reached the age of 30.68
One hopeful future scenario sees the African
continent diversifying from extractive industries
to investing in its youth. If business friendly
policies were introduced, some analysts predict
that production in China could shift to Africa69
and Africa’s ‘youth bulge’ could be ‘put to work’.
However, there are also fears of ‘Chinese neo-colonialism’ that might jeopardise Africa’s future.
A further risk factor for discontent and unrest is
the combination of lower demand for commodities and lower commodity prices, which will
call for belt-tightening in Africa’s oil-producing
countries. The latest International Monetary Fund
outlook for sub-Saharan Africa predicts a growth
of only 1.4%. A number of African countries have
already had to turn to the IMF and the World
Bank for bailouts. Sub-Saharan countries, including Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria,
Zambia, and Zimbabwe have asked for financial
assistance or are in talks to do so.73
Demography and Well-Being
Although major investment in Africa’s youth
is needed to address barriers to youth employment, there may not be time to make sufficient
investment to avert a population ‘time bomb’.
The international Children’s Worlds survey
suggests that Africa is lagging behind other
countries in investing in its youth. (See Technical
Box 2: African children’s well-being in international context). Noteworthy is that some of
Africa’s smaller nations, particularly island
states such as Mauritius, are among the happiest
(see Figure 4.2 above), a finding that suggests it
may be easier for the state to provide services for
a smaller number of people.
103
Technical box 2: African Children’s Well-being in an International Context
African countries are aware that investing in
children will contribute to a better future for
their nations and their people. Over the past decade, Africa has seen significant changes that
affect child well-being, including a reduction in
infant and child mortality, and improved access
to basic health services. However, there are still
many factors that hold back the advancement of
young children, such as malnutrition and stunting, on-going conflict in some countries, and
unequal education for girls.
Research on the well-being of African children is
still in its infancy. Children’s Worlds, the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being, is so far
the largest international comparative research on
children’s own views of their lives and well-being. Children’s Worlds aims to create awareness
of the state of child well-being among children,
their parents and their communities, and to inform policy makers and the general public. The
2013-14 wave tracked just over 53,000 children
aged about 8, 10, and 12 years in 15 countries
across four continents. Country samples typically
include approximately 1,000 children attending
mainstream schools in each age group.
The survey is based solely on children’s own evaluations, perceptions and aspirations. Children
are asked to evaluate their lives relating to some
dozen domains, including their living situation,
home and family relationships, money and economic circumstances, friends and other relationships, the local area, school, time use, the self,
children’s rights, and subjective well-being.
104
The survey uses a number of response formats
for its questionnaire items: Life circumstances
are captured by agreement with statements on 5
or 10-point response scales from ‘I do not agree’
to ‘I totally agree’. Responses to frequency
items, mainly time-use ones, are recorded on a
4-point scale from ‘rarely or never’ to ‘every day
or almost every day’. Domain and life satisfactions are rated on a 0 to 10-point scale from ‘not
at all satisfied’ to ‘totally satisfied’. For international comparative purposes, country standing
is variously reported as the country’s mean
score on a survey item, the standard deviation of
the mean country score to indicate dispersal of
responses, and the rank order of the country’s
score among the 15 countries.
Three African countries are included in the
Children’s Worlds 2013-14 survey: Algeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa. The samples of children
drawn are representative of the whole country
in the case of Ethiopia, the Western Cape Province in South Africa, and the Western Region of
Algeria. These three countries differ markedly
according to their objective socio-economic indicators. For example, Gross Domestic Product
per capita in Algeria and South Africa is approximately ten times higher than in Ethiopia, the
poorest country in the Children’s Worlds survey
apart from Nepal. Ethiopia ranks 173 out of 187
on the Human Development Index, the lowest
ranking among the 15 countries, compared to
somewhat higher HDI rankings for Algeria (93)
and South Africa (118) in 2013. South Africa is
the most unequal country in the survey, with a
very high Gini coefficient of 63 (100 indicates
highest inequality).
Select findings from the Children’s Worlds
2013-14 survey among approximately 36,000
children aged 10 to 12 years provide glimpses of
how African children view and evaluate their
lives compared to age peers in Colombia, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Nepal, Norway, Poland,
Romania, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, and the
United Kingdom.
Home and family life: Children in all 15 countries generally viewed their home and family
life fairly positively. Algeria’s evaluations of this
domain ranked among the most favourable
while Ethiopia’s were often the least favourable.
Algerian children achieved high rankings for
satisfaction with ‘my family life’ and endorse-
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
ment that parents listened to them and treated
them fairly. In contrast, children in all three African countries were among the most dissatisfied with ‘the house or flat where you live’, and
Ethiopian and South African children were
most likely not to ‘feel safe at home’ and not to
‘have a quiet place to study at home’.
Time use. Homework was one of the most common after-school activities in all countries. African
children also looked after siblings and other family members and helped with household chores.
Participation in organized spare-time activities,
such as reading for fun and sports were less common, particularly in Ethiopia and Algeria.
Local area. The African countries rated the ‘area
you live in in general’ and opportunities for ‘doing things away from home’ less favourably
than others, and were less likely to say they have
places to play and feel safe in the area where
they live.
Safety. Satisfaction with personal safety, a topic explored across the domains of home, school, local
area, and the self, attracted lower scores in South
Africa and Ethiopia than in many other countries.
Material well-being. The Children’s Worlds index of material deprivation asked children if
they had or lacked nine items including good
clothes for school, a computer at home, internet
access, a mobile phone, own room, books to
read for fun, a family car, ‘own stuff’ to listen to
music, and a television in the home. Pooled
world data indicated that, on average, children
lacked only 1.9 items. Norway’s children suffered the least material deprivation; they lacked
only 0.2 items on average. Ethiopia was the
most materially deprived of all countries, with
6.3 lacked items. There was less material deprivation in the other African countries: Algeria
lacked 3.6 items, South Africa 2.3, but the distribution of deprivation was particularly uneven in
the two countries. African children were also
among the least satisfied with ‘the things you
have’ compared to other countries.
School life. Children in all 15 countries were
mainly positive about school life. African children were no exception. For example, endorsement of ‘I like going to school’ by Ethiopian and
Algerian children was higher than in other
countries. Children in Algeria were also among
the most satisfied with ‘my life as a student’,
‘my school experience’, and ‘the things I learn
at school’. Unusually, Ethiopian children’s evaluation of school life was generally more positive
than home life, although they did not feel very
safe at school.
Subjective well-being. Three indicators measured children’s overall subjective well-being: a
satisfaction item (with ‘life as a whole’), a frequency item (‘how happy were you in the past
two weeks’), and an agreement item (‘I feel positive about the future’). Country scores on all
three measures were highly skewed towards the
positive end of the 0 to 10 point scale. In the
12-years survey, scores on the three measures
were contained in a narrow band from 9.0-9.5
in Romania down to 7.5-7.6 in South Korea.
Scores on subjective well-being varied across
the African countries with Algeria leading,
South Africa in an intermediate position, and
Ethiopia lagging behind. Algeria ranked among
the four countries with the highest scores on
life satisfaction (9.1) and happiness (8.9) for 12
year olds. South Africa’s distribution of life satisfaction scores for 10 and 12 year olds were the
most extreme: low scores (below 5) and high
scores (10) were split 7.4% to 63%. Ethiopia
ranked second-lowest, after South Korea, on life
satisfaction among 10 to 12 year olds. Only every second Ethiopian child rated life satisfaction
with a score of 10 compared to over 7 in 10 in
the four top-ranking countries.
In contrast to these widely varying present life
evaluations, African children were consistently
positive about the future. All three countries
gave a future rating of 8.7 out of 10, a score only
0.3 points lower than top-ranking Romania’s
score of 9.
105
Final Comments. The select findings from the
2013-14 Children’s World survey previewed here
expose some of the disadvantages many African
children face in early life. The most glaring hardship may be doing without the resources that
children in more developed countries take for
granted. Obviously, much needs to be done to
improve African children’s life circumstances.
Meanwhile Africa’s children, like all children
around the world, try to enjoy everyday life. Importantly, they express confidence in their future.
For centuries Africa was underpopulated. The
continent only started to reach its potential for
population growth toward the end of the 20th
century.74 Now Africa’s exploding population is
expected to double by 2050. Population growth,
together with migration to Africa’s urban areas
has put severe pressure on the state’s capacity
to provide education, health services, and infrastructure. Further population growth may
undermine progress in human development
achieved so far. It is predicted that by 2050,
Africa could have 35 cities with over 5 million
inhabitants with Kinshasa and Lagos each
exceeding 30 million.75
106
Africa’s population challenge. Demographers
Jean-Pierre Guengant and John May describe
the scale of the continent’s new population
challenge. In the early 1960s, they report,
African countries had fertility rates of between
5.5 and 7.5, comparable with other developing
economies at that time. Whereas Asian and
Latin American nations saw their fertility rates
decline at a fairly steady rate over the next fifty
years, African countries’ fertility stayed high
until the 1980s, before it fell sharply. As a result,
they predict that Africa’s overall population will
rise sharply, its big cities will grow alarmingly,
and although its labour force will also expand,
its ‘youth bulge’ will be ‘hard to manage’.76
Further information: See the report on the
Children’s Worlds Survey, 2013-14, in 15
countries (Rees & Main 2015), and African
country reports on Children’s Worlds surveys
in Algeria (Tiliouine 2015b), Ethiopia
(Mekonen & Dejene 2015), and South Africa
(Savahl et al. 2015), available on the project
website: www.isciweb.org
Currently, some 78% of Africa’s people live in
countries that have not passed the demographic
transition to low fertility and low mortality; only
the countries in the far north and south of the
continent are exceptions with lower fertility
rates. Countries with the top ten fertility rates in
the world are found in sub-Saharan Africa, with
nearly all above six children per woman. Fertility
rates are particularly high among Africa’s
landlocked countries and ones with low rates
of urbanisation. Niger, a land-locked country
in the Sahel is a case in point. It has the world’s
highest fertility rate of 7.6. The rate of contraception use among child-bearing age women
in sub-Saharan Africa is lower than in other
regions of the world.77
Our examination of demographic factors
(see Figs. 4.15 and 4.16) suggests that African
countries with higher fertility rates and a large
youth population may find it harder to provide
quality of life for their citizens.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Figure 4.15: Fertility Rates and Happiness in 34 African Countries, 2013-15a
Sources: World Bank World Development Indicators and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.11.
a. In three instances (Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland), there was no available happiness data point in the 2013-2015 period, so we instead utilized the data for the 2009-2011 period instead.
Figure 4.16: Youth Share (under 15 years) and Happiness in 34 African Countries, 2013-15a
107
Sources: World Bank World Development Indicators and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.11.
a. In three instances (Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland), there was no available happiness data point in the 2013-2015 period, so we instead utilized the data for the 2009-2011 period instead.
The Unfinished Story:
African Resilience and Hope
for the Future
African resilience
Given the development challenges that Africa
currently faces, it may take a while before people
in Africa join the happiest people on the globe.
Meanwhile, Africa’s relative happiness deficit is
buoyed by its astonishing resilience. The West
African scholars, cited in the introduction to this
chapter, referred to African people’s coping
skills when discussing how improbable it was
for their countries to be assigned high happiness
rankings in international studies. In the case of
Nigeria, Aaron Agbo and his colleagues reason
that the country’s happiness ‘paradox’ serves as
an ‘adaptive mechanism’.78 Similarly, Vivian
Dzokoto reproduces a typical ‘emblematic’
conversation between a foreign visitor and a
local to illustrate how Ghanaians cope in everyday life. The visitor to Africa is perplexed to find
there is no running water when turning on the
tap, and asks successive questions to seek a
plausible explanation. In response, the Ghanaian,
who takes such things for granted, simply
shrugs and says: ‘My friend, this is Ghana.
Sometimes, the water runs, sometimes, it
doesn’t. That is how it is. Here, take this bucket.
There is water in the tank around the corner.’79
African optimism
108
Optimism that ‘many things’ will change for the
better, to paraphrase the Gallup-Kettering question put to African respondents in its 1970s
global survey, is a further coping skill perfected
by African people. People living on the continent
have developed this skill over time, possibly over
centuries, to make daily hassles and hardships
tolerable.80 A series of studies of democracy and
happiness in the authoritarian states of Chad
and Zimbabwe, and in South Africa’s new
democracy, suggest that even when the demand
for democracy in Africa is not matched by
satisfaction with living conditions, discontent is
tempered by optimism for the future.81
The majority of African countries rate life at
present below the mid-point of the Cantril
ladder scale in the latest available Gallup World
Poll. This is not the case for average future
ratings. Projected ladder ratings in five years’
time are uniformly higher than present evaluations across all countries on the continent. In
fact, the percentage increase in future expectations of life is often higher among some of the
least contented nations.
Nigeria’s track record of such positive expectations is well documented. Cantril’s 1960s study
already reported a difference of 2.6 points
between the country’s average present (4.8) and
future (7.4) ladder ratings.82 Similarly, in 2016,
there is a difference of 2.9 points between
Nigeria’s present (5.3) and future (8.2) ratings in
the Gallup World Poll. An international study of
comparative ladder ratings in ten countries with
large populations, including China, India and
the United States, found Nigeria’s 2.6 point
difference between present and future ratings to
be by far the largest.83 Nigeria’s spirit of optimism
may be exceptional by world standards, but not
in Africa.
On average in African countries, future life
evaluations are much higher than present ones.
Optimism, the gap between present and future
ladder ratings, is greatest for Africa’s youth and
decreases with age (see Fig. 4.17). In almost all
African countries, youthful optimism is above
the national average (see Fig. 4.18). It is likely
that this belief that things may change for the
better helps African people to manage their lives
in difficult circumstances. African children may
grow up with such a sense of optimism (see
Technical Box 2 above).
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Figure 4.17: Average Cantril Present and Future Ladder Evaluations by Age Group,
37 African Countries, 2015-16
Sources: Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.12.
Figure 4.18: Comparison of Differences Between Future and Present Ladder Scores Between Youth
(15-24 years) and the National Average, 37 African Countries, 2015-16a
109
Sources: Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.12.
a. The data are ranked from highest to lowest difference in ladder scores based on national averages.
Figure 4.19: Importance of Religion in Life, 9 African and 21 Other Countries, 2013a
Sources: Pew Global Attitudes & Trends Question Database, Online Appendix, Table A4.13.
a. The data are ranked from highest to lowest within each country cluster based on the percentage saying that religion is ‘very
important’ in life.
Drying tears 84—African religiosity
African people also tend to turn to religion to
find fellowship, comfort, and a sense of hope in
the future.85 A recent Pew study of religiosity86
across 30 countries found that the importance
of religion is higher, on average, in Africa than
elsewhere (see Fig. 4.19). The relationship
between religiosity and happiness among these
countries lends support to the idea that faith might
assuage Africa’s unhappiness (see Fig. 4.20).
Conclusions
110
In this chapter we have attempted to explore the
reasons why African countries lag behind other
countries in the world in their evaluation of life.
We took as our starting point the aspirations
expressed by the Nigerian respondents in the
1970 Gallup-Kettering study who were about to
embark on their first experience of freedom
from colonialism. Nigerians stated that many
changes, not just a few, were needed to improve
their lives and those of their families. Fifty years
on, judging by the social indicators we have
presented in this chapter, people in many African
countries are still waiting for changes to improve
their lives and to make them happy. In short,
African people’s expectations that they and their
countries would flourish under self-rule and
democracy appear not to have been met.
Africa’s lower levels of happiness compared to
other countries in the world might be attributed
to this disappointment with different aspects of
development under democracy. Although most
citizens still believe that democracy is the best
political system, they are critical of good governance in their countries. While there has been
significant improvement in meeting basic needs
according to the Afrobarometer index of ‘lived
poverty’, population pressure may have stymied
infrastructure and youth development.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
Figure 4.20: Happiness and the Importance of Religion in Life, 9 African and 21 Other Countries,
2013-15a
Sources: Pew Global Attitudes & Trends Question Database and Gallup World Poll ladder-of-life data, Online Appendix, Table A4.14.
a. The religiosity data are based on the percentage saying that religion is ‘very important’ in life. The 2007 values for Morocco
and the Netherlands are based on 2005 data, while it is based on 2009 data for Hungary. The 2013 values are based on 2011 data
in the cases of Lithuania, Sweden and Ukraine, and 2012 data in India and the United States.
Most countries in the world project that life
circumstances will improve in future.87
However, Africa’s optimism may be exceptional.
African people demonstrate ingenuity that
makes life bearable even under less than perfect
circumstances. Coping with poor infrastructure,
as illustrated in the case of Ghana referred to in
this chapter, is just one example of the remarkable resilience that African people have perfected. African people are essentially optimistic,
most of all the youth who have their lives ahead
of them. This optimism might serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy for the continent.
What if Africa looks to its youth to realise the
continent’s dreams of prosperity? What if the
African youth’s confidence in their future and
their entrepreneurial spirit were to be matched
by substantial investment in their development? Then, no doubt, African countries would
join the ranks of the world’s prosperous and
happy nations.
111
1 ‘Waiting for Happiness’ is the title of Abderrahmane
Sissako’s 2002 film that depicts the daily lives of people
living in northwest Africa’s Mauritania. See Niemiec &
Wedding (2014, p. 329).
2 E
qual numbers of African countries gained or lost
happiness over the periods 2005-2007 to 2014-2016 as set
out in Chapter 2 of this report. However, only two African
countries out of 126 worldwide made significant gains of
0.5 point increases or more in their ladder scores. Sierra
Leone – one of the three West African countries affected by
the outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014 – gained 1.1 points,
Cameroon 0.59 points. In contrast, six countries’ ladder
scores dropped significantly by 0.6 points or more over the
two periods. (see WHR 2017, Chapter 2).
3 In 2014-16, the average standard deviation in happiness
ratings was 2.301 for 44 African countries, ranging from
1.588 for Senegal to 3.287 for Sierra Leone (See Fig. 14 in
the Statistical Appendix WHR 2017). Average standard
deviation in happiness ratings for 39 African countries
increased from 2.132 to 2.265 over the periods 2012-15 to
2014-16.
4 D
ianna Games (2015) at Business Advisory Africa at Work
(www.africaat-work.co.za) refers to the ‘patchwork of
countries that make up Africa’. Responsible for this
patchwork is the 19th century ‘scramble for Africa’ that created borders that cut across ethnicities and ancient polities
(see Meredith 2011). In the interest of political stability on
the continent, the African Union, formed in 2002 with the
objectives of promoting peace and democracy on the
continent, supports the maintenance of country borders
dating back to independence. South Sudan, which gained
its independence from Sudan in 2011, is an exception.
5 T
he 2016 WHR reported ladder scores for both Somaliland
and Somali in the global distribution of happiness (see
Helliwell, Huang & Wang, 2016, Figure 2.2, pp. 20–22).
Ladder scores for two small African countries of Comoros
and Djibouti were included in earlier WHRs: Comoros in
the WHR Updates 2013 to 2016 and Djibouti in WHR
2015.
112
6 T
here were no ladder scores available for the 2014–16
period for Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania and Somaliland,
so we used the latest available data reported in earlier
WHRs instead. The map shows a 2012–14 ladder score for
Djibouti (4.369) (see Helliwell et al. 2015, Fig. 2.2, p. 28),
and 2013–15 ladder scores for Comoros (3.956), Mauritania
(4.201) and Somaliland (5.057) (see Helliwell et al. 2016,
Fig. 2.2, p. 21–2).
7 T
he title of a chapter in Meredith’s (2011, p. 162) history of
Africa.
8 S
ee Huntington (1991), Diamond (2008), and Diamond &
Plattner (2010).
9 F
or reports on Africa’s quality of life and well-being from
an historical perspective, see Tiliouine (2015a) and
Tiliouine & Meziane (2017) on North Africa, and Roberts
et al. (2015) and Møller & Roberts (2017) on sub-Saharan
Africa.
10 S
ee Furlonger (2016) commenting on access to African
markets in a South African business daily.
11 S
ee veteran Africa journalist and University of Kent
professor Keith Somerville’s (2013) views on the different
lenses through which we can observe and evaluate Africa’s
performance.
12 S
ee, for example, Roger Southall’s (2016) portrait of South
Africa’s emergent black middle class.
13 S
ee the article on ‘Africa Rising’ by Aryn Baker (2015),
Time Magazine’s Africa correspondent.
14 I n this chapter we limit our examination of happiness to
Africa’s post-independence period, which coincides with
the emergence of the 1960s social indicators movement
that applied the first rigorous measures of quality of life
and well-being. It is possible that Africa’s people, or at
least those of standing, flourished in earlier times, e.g.
when the pharaohs ruled in the Nile valley (van Wyk
Smith 2009), during Islam’s golden age in Africa
(Renima, Tiliouine & Estes 2016), and at the height of the
ancient kingdoms and civilisations in West and East
Africa (see Møller & Roberts 2017). Going further back in
time, Africa’s more egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies
(Reader 1997), whose expectations of life will have been
more modest than present-day ones, might have been
more contented than contemporary African citizens.
15 R
ichard Easterlin (2010) argues that it is important to
examine time-series as opposed to point-of-time evidence
on happiness.
16 T
he Afrobarometer is an African-led series of public
attitude surveys on democracy and governance, whose
coverage of African countries has increased from 12 in
Round 1 (1999–2001) to 36 in Round 6 (2014–2015).
Afrobarometer’s Round 6 interviews with about 54 000
citizens in 36 countries represent the views of more than
three-fourths of the continent’s population.
17 T
he Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) covers
all 54 countries on the continent. The tenth iteration of
the IIAG 2016 incorporates Afrobarometer public attitude
survey data for the first time. This addition means that
just over 17% of IIAG’s 95 indicators are now provided by
African sources (Mo Ibrahim Foundation 2016, p. 9). See
www.afrobarometer.org and Mo Ibrahim Foundation
(2016).
18 See http://www.arabbarometer.org/
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
19 S
ee Vivian Afi Abui Dzokoto’s (2012, p. 311) chapter on
happiness in Ghana, which she contributed to a handbook
on happiness across cultures. An Associate Professor of
African America Studies at Virginia Commonwealth
University in the USA, Dzokoto was raised in Germany
and Ghana.
25 N
oting that Africans live on the world’s ‘most ethnically
diverse and fractious continent’, John Stremlau (2016)
argues that Africa’s democracies need to cater to the
needs of multiple groups in society.
20 S
ee the chapter on happiness in Nigeria, which University of Nigeria researchers Aaron A. Agbo, Thaddeus C.
Nzeadibe, and Chukwuedozie K. Ajaero (2012, p. 303)
contributed to a handbook on happiness across cultures.
Lead author Aaron Agbo is based in the Department of
Psychology; his colleagues Nzeadibe and Ajaero in the
Department of Geography at the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.
27 See Akokpari (2004) and Mtimkulu (2015).
21 I nglehart and Klingemann (2000, cited in Tov & Diener
2009, p.22) suggest that, apart from economic development, national levels of well-being might also reflect
historical factors. Their research found that the number of
years living under communist rule negatively predicted
national well-being in former communist states of Eastern
Europe and the USSR. One might consider that Africa’s
history of colonial rule may have played a similar role in
shaping life evaluations on the continent. In South Africa,
we were only able to rule out the possibility that cultural
factors rather than miserable living conditions and lack of
opportunities in life might be responsible for the very low
happiness ratings of black South Africans under apartheid. Eight years into democracy, there was a sufficiently
large subsample of black respondents of economic
standing to test the notion. A 2002 study found that the
higher happiness ratings of South Africa’s emergent black
economic elites matched their better standard of living
under democracy (Møller 2004).
29 H
ere we refer to observations on the importance of good
governance for citizen well-being in Helliwell and Huang
(2008) and the volume on well-being for public policy
edited by Ed Diener, Richard Lucas, Ulrich Schimmack &
John Helliwell (2009, p. 60) and an OECD working
paper that traces the linkages between good governance
and national well-being (Helliwell et al. 2014). Similarly,
an Institute for Security Studies African Futures scenario
links gains in effective governance with poverty reduction
on the continent (Aucoin & Donnenfeld 2016).
22 Hadley Cantril’s (1965) classic study for the 1960s reports
the mean present ladder ratings of 4.8 for Nigeria (p.78)
and 5.5 for Egypt (p. 118). Nigeria’s ladder rating of 4.875
in the WHR 2016 (Helliwell et al. 2016, pp. 20–21, Figure
2.2) is almost identical to its 1960 rating of 4.8.
23 S
ee the Gallup-Kettering global survey (1976). The range
of Gallup World Poll ladder ratings 2014-16 for the 11
countries is taken from Figure 4.2 above.
24 O
f the 90% in the sub-Saharan sample who wished for
change in their lives, 67% wanted ‘many things’ to
change, 22% ‘just a few’ things. The question on the
‘extent of change necessary for a happier life’ read:
‘Thinking about how your life is going now, do you think
you would be happier if things could be changed about
your life? (If yes) Would you like many things about your
life changed or just a few things? See Table VI in the
Gallup-Kettering Global Survey (1976) summary volume’s
reprint of: Human Needs and Satisfactions, Mankind:
The Global Survey and the Third World, Blue Supplement
to the “Monthly Public Opinion Surveys” of the Indian
Institute of Public Opinion, Vol. XXI, Nos. 9 & 10. http://
worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/hap_bib/freetexts/~Gallup_Kettering_1976k.pdf
26 See Møller & Roberts (2017).
28 G
reg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst (2012) contend that Africa
has already undergone two liberations, first from
colonialism and then from the autocratic rulers that often
followed on colonial rule. Africa is now awaiting its third
liberation from bad governance so that it can accelerate
its development towards more jobs and less poverty.
30 See Afrobarometer (2002).
31 T
he briefing paper on the first round of Afrobarometer
surveys conducted in 12 countries in 2001 reports that the
democracy concept is understood mainly as civil liberties,
such as freedom of speech. In practice, people want
democracy to deliver basic necessities of life such as food,
water, shelter and education, even more strongly than they
insist on regular elections, majority rule, competing
political parties, and freedom to criticise the government.
See Afrobarometer (2002).
32 See Cantril (1965, p. 75).
33 R
eferring to development economist Jeffrey Sach’s (2005)
book by that title.
34 A
frobarometer’s Lived Poverty Index is an experiential
measure that is based on a series of survey questions
about how frequently people actually go without six basic
necessities during the course of a year. Respondents
report how often (just once or twice, several times, many
times, always) they or a member of their family have gone
without enough food, clean water for home use, medicines or medical treatment, cooking fuel, cash income,
and electricity in the home. See Mattes (2008) and www.
afrobarometer.org
35 See Gernetzky (2016).
36 S
ee Afrobarometer (2016) on highlights from Round 6
survey findings from 36 African countries and Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 69 by Mitullah, Samson, Wambua,
& Balongo (2016) on infrastructure development
challenges in Africa.
113
37 B
ookwalter (2012) reports that studies conducted by
economists found factors such as rising levels of income
and access to consumption goods were more likely to
boost happiness among white South Africans.
39 S
ee Afrobarometer (2015, p. 22) for results relating to
conditional support for democracy in South Africa amid
rising discontent, and Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 71 by
Lekalake (2016).
48 B
enin’s Mathieu Kérékou, in and out of power over a
thirty year period since 1972, was barred from running
for a third term as president in 2016 on constitutional
and age grounds. Gabon’s current President Ali Bongo,
sworn in for a second seven-year term in 2016, took over
from his late father who ruled the country for 41 years
until his death in 2009. In Burkina Faso, meaning ‘land
of honest men’, President Blaise Compaoré was in power
for 27 years before he was toppled in the 2014 popular
uprising. Mozambique’s Joachim Chissano, installed as
president in 1986 after President Samora Machel was
killed in a plane crash, stepped down in 2004 after 18
years in office. He was awarded the Mo Ibrahim prize for
good governance.
40 S
ee Robert Stefan Foa and Yacha Mounk (2017) on the
global rise in citizens wishing for a strong leader in their
paper on signs of democratic deconsolidation.
49 A
li Bongo was sworn in for a second seven-year term in
September 2016, after Gabon’s constitutional court
upheld his narrow victory in a bitterly disputed election.
41 See Maphunye (2016).
50 T
he title is taken from a book by Adam Branch and
Zachariah Mampilly (2015) on the new wave of popular
protest in Africa.
38 R
obert Mattes, Boniface Dulani and E. Gyimah-Boadi
(2016) report on the drop in lived poverty in African
countries in their January 2016 Afrobarometer policy
paper.
42 S
ince being launched in 2006, the Ibrahim Prize has
been awarded to President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique (2007), President Festus Mogae of Botswana
(2008), President Pedro Pires of Cabo Verde (2011), and
President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia (2014).
President Nelson Mandela of South Africa was the
inaugural Honorary Laureate in 2007. See Turianskyi
(2016) and http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/news/2016/
mo-ibrahim-foundation-announces-no-winner-2015-ibrahim-prize-achievement-african-leadership
43 See Cohen & Doya (2016).
44 M
any scholars have written about the clientelism,
cronyism, nepotism, and rent-seeking practices that have
kept Africa’s leaders in power and retarded economic
growth and advances in democracy. See among others,
Cheeseman (2015), Meredith (2011; 2014), Mills (2014),
Mills & Herbst (2012), Ndulu & O’Connell (1999), van de
Walle (2003), and Wrong’s (2010) account of Kenya’s
whistle-blowers. Regarding corruption, Historian Martin
Meredith, visiting South Africa for the launch of his new
book on Africa (Meredith 2014), was asked why Asian
economies grew faster than African ones in spite of
corruption. He replied that Asia’s wealth was reinvested
in Asia, whereas Africa’s wealth left the continent
(Interview with Meredith on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s After Eight morning programme, 26
November 2014, own notes).
45 See Somerville (2016)
114
46 S
ee Joffe’s (2016) report on the World Economic Forum
on Africa.
47 S
ee Serge Schmemann’s (2016) overview of the challenges facing democratic principles in an unstable world that
include authoritarian rule and the attraction of the ‘big
man’.
51 See Adebajo (2014).
52 See Loschky (2013).
53 S
ee BBC’s The Gambia country profile. http://www.bbc.
com/news/world-africa-13376517, Accessed 2 December
2016.
54 S
ee Kiwuwa’s (2016) report on Jammeh’s quick acceptance of defeat that astounded the world until it was
overturned. Postscript: Mr Jammeh finally left office in
January 2017 after mediation by neighbouring countries
and the threat of armed intervention. See Pilling (2017)
on the significance of the turn of events in The Gambia
for democracy in Africa.
55 M
ark Swilling (2016) sees the protests in South Africa and
Ethiopia as part of a wave of protests sweeping through
the continent known as ‘Africa Uprising’. In Kenya,
Elizabeth Cooper (2014; 2016) interprets high school
students’ torching of boarding schools as political protest
action.
56 A
frican studies professor Jonny Steinberg (2016)
describes South Africa’s student protests as ‘a war against
the fathers’ and ‘inter-generational loathing’. Writing on
Ethiopia’s protests, Jeffry Gettleman (2016) cites a
university lecturer in central Ethiopia saying that: ‘If you
suffocate people and they don’t have any other options but
to protest, it breaks out. ..the whole youth.. a whole
generation is protesting’.
57 Afrobarometer (2016, p. 11).
58 S
ee Greg Mills (2014, p. 571) on the disconnect between
the expectations of youth and their ruling parties in
authoritarian regimes in sub-Saharan Africa.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017
59 S
ee Gopaldas (2015) and Population Reference Bureau
(2016) on the age gap.
60 A
lready in 2002, a special issue of the African Studies
Review 45(2) was devoted to the role of Africa’s universities in promoting democratic culture in Africa. Amutabi
(2002) examined the case of Kenya’s universities.
Nshimbi (2016) reviews the Nigerian experience of
clashes between students and government in the past
that led to repressive measures.
61 A
frica has seen migration on the continent and beyond
for millions of years (see Reader 1997).
62 See Francis Wilson (1972) on South Africa’s migrant
labour system.
63 See The Daily Telegraph (2015).
64 B
odomo (2013) reports that money sent home by Africans
surpassed foreign aid by 2013. Remittances benefit
households directly as they go towards paying school fees,
building new homes and growing businesses.
65 Z
ulu for ‘we have no money’, the title of a play by
Mbongeni Ngema in the Athol Fugard tradition that
expresses the rage of young black men in South Africa
during the apartheid era.
66 African Development Bank (2011, p. 2)
67 S
ee OECD (2016) for a report on youth unemployment in
North Africa.
68 S
ee The Economist (2014), the Population Reference
Bureau (2016), and Baker (2015).
69 See Davies (2015).
70 See Reader’s (1997) biography of the African continent.
71 See Vink (2016).
72 See Chagutah (2016).
73 See Khor (2016).
79 See Dzokoto (2012, p. 319).
80 V
eenhoven (2005) reports that happiness in hardship is
possible if people rise to the challenge of coping with
difficulties in life.
81 T
he 2005 study conducted in Zimbabwe classified 45% of
respondents as very democratic and a further 36% as
democratic. Only 11% of Zimbabweans were satisfied with
life at present, but twice as many (22%) thought they
would feel satisfied with life in ten years’ time (Dickow
2007, pp. 111, 121–2). The 2004 study conducted in four
main cities in Chad found 60% of respondents supported
democratic principles. Only 14 percent were very happy
with their life at present, but more than twice as many
(35%) thought they would be very happy with life in future
(Dickow 2005, pp. 112, 128–9). In the 2002 South Africa
study, 51% of black and 74% of white South Africans
supported democratic values and were classified as either
very democratic or democratic. Black respondents
reported the lowest levels of current life satisfaction (37%)
and happiness (38%) in the country, but 45% projected
life satisfaction to increase in future (Møller & Hanf 2007,
p.99 ff.).
82 See Cantril (1965, p. 78).
83 See Gulyas (2015).
84 W
ith reference to a South African evangelical church’s
promise of salvation and prosperity: ‘We are open seven
days a week and seven services a day. The God of the
Bible will dry away your tears and you will have the result
you need in your life’ (See Van Wyk 2014, p.160)
85 F
or example, see Pokimica, Addai & Takyi (2012) on the
relationship between religion and subjective well-being in
Ghana. Helga Dickow (2012) reports on religion, personal
well-being, and attitudes to democracy among South
Africans.
86 S
ee Pew Global Attitudes and Trends question database,
http://www.pewglobal.org/question-search/?qid=408&cntIDs=&stdIDs=
87 See Cantril (1965) and Gulyas (2015).
74 See Reader (1997).
75 S
ee Baker (2015), The Economist (2014) and Guengant &
May (2013).
76 S
ee Guengant & May (2013) and The Economist’s (2014)
report on their study of African demography.
77 See Guengant & May (2013) and The Economist’s (2014)
report on their study of African demography. The data we
sourced gave Niger a fertility rate of 7.6, which is higher
than the 7.5 rate reported by Guengant and May in 2013.
This might indicate that Niger’s fertility has increased
since 2013.
78 See Agbo, Nzeadibe & Ajaero (2012, p. 303).
115
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