Why Are Africans Ever So Boisterous?
Are Africans Happier than Europeans?
Wherever you see black people in groups of three, four, five, or even two, they seem happier, more energetic, and more sociable than white people. Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, and Norway have the highest GDP per capita in Europe and some of the highest in the world, but when you see them, they look miserable, moody, and out of depth. Why?
There is never a time that you’d ask an African how they were and they’d say, ‘Bad, life is horrible’, or anything negative. It’s always “I’m fine”, “We thank God”, or “Excellent”, and they say it with conviction. You would observe an individual residing in the most impoverished conditions, struggling to obtain sufficient food, dressed in tattered clothing, in contrast to a white individual who is well-dressed, drives a luxury vehicle, hails from a developed nation, and possesses millions in their bank account. Yet, they have less boisterous energy than the African who has nothing.
Even Africans being saved in the Mediterranean, trying to smuggle into Europe, look happier than the European coast guards and immigration officers who are trying to save them. Our people are always boisterous and jubilant. In Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway, and even during my visits to the US and Canada, you don’t see boisterous people in white-dominated areas. They are just too serious. Why is that?
In the World Happiness Index, year after year, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and other usual European countries often top the list. I have been to all of these countries, but I’m afraid I don’t see happy people as I do in my trips in Kenya, Rwanda, Angola, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Cameroon, Botswana, or both Congos. Then I dug deeper and found the problem—Europeans are defining happiness through their lens: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption. Of course, no African country would ever make the upper end of the list with such standards.
In Africa, what qualifies as self-sufficiency differs. Having many children, living in the community of your people, farming and eating together, extended family sharing communal homes, going to church or the mosque together, children of the various extended families and community living and playing together, walking to school together and telling folklores, attending the endless weddings of the endless cousins and extended families and relatives, and many more other social interactions qualify as happiness. Therefore, if Africans had compiled that Happiness Index from their perspective, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Kenya, Gabon, and the other African countries would have ranked highest.
Africans’ shortsightedness is the primary driver of their never-ending exuberance. If you only live for today, you would, of course, be happier than the person whose mind is already focused on 2040. Even older Africans are happier than older Westerners. In fact, I have never seen a more miserable group of people than Western retirees. They are lonely, abandoned by their families or children who are busy trying to pay their mortgages. I’m not saying everyone is the same; I’m trying to paint an overall picture.
People who can develop and achieve the type of success we see in the West and East Asia cannot live in the African model. Make endless babies; drink and party; celebrate everything every time; live for the now and in communities without preparing for the future. The African’s ignorance leads to a false sense of happiness. No one who worries about the future can be as boisterous as Africans. Interestingly, that boisterousness is also prevalent in African Americans, or black people in the Western hemisphere, even though they have not been in contact with Africa for centuries. Is this genetic or cultural?
Imagine how miserable Europeans, Americans, or East Asians would be without a pension plan. Most people in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and even tiny dots on the map, like 3 million in Gabon, Botswana, and Namibia, have no pension. Yet, these people seem happier than Westerners. Amid all the boisterousness, Africans have the shortest lifespan. Nigeria is the world’s capital of people who live the shortest. Since there is limited planning for the future, they have not invested in studies to help them understand why they are dying so fast. Africans are consuming American junk food as if, without it, the world would end.
Obesity among the middle class is spreading chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes; cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, and several types of cancer; and musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis. In some South African regions, obesity now surpasses HIV as the leading cause of death. By 2030, projections indicate that nearly half of all women in Africa will be overweight or obese. By 2050, projections indicate that obesity will double among young people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The 2025 World Obesity Atlas indicates that most African nations are unprepared for this surge, as few have adequate policies in place.
One in five Nigerians is obese. Actually, they take pride in being chubby and big. Pizza, burgers, ice cream, cakes, and all the other American junk foods that have wreaked havoc in the US are considered posh food in sub-Saharan Africa. You know, people who have lived in the periphery and had limited food for so long, and then all of a sudden, pops out of the blue ice creams, pizzas and burgers – they lose their minds. The unstructured nature of African societies, without a futuristic outlook or a need to look beyond their noses, is the greatest weakness of African culture and worldview. We are beating ourselves trying to make Africans into the things that are valued in the West and East Asia. The Africans have reached their peak. It cannot grow past this stage. The world sees something wrong with Africa, but Africans don’t see anything wrong with themselves. They possess the most affluent social life, exhibit the greatest frequency of smiles, engage in constant celebrations, and even commemorate the act of waking up, as each day is a cherished blessing. They make no record or data of the changes in their lives, society, or the dynamics of evolution, pre- or post-independence. People who live like this see nothing wrong with their lifestyle.
No other group records higher levels of optimism, joy, and resilience than Africans, even though they are among the poorest. All the GDPs, inventions, and technology the West and East Asians have, instead of making them have more babies, increasing the marriage rate, decreasing divorce, and decreasing suicide and depression rates, have worsened them. Africa has lower rates of depression, suicide, and loneliness, as well as higher marriage and birth rates. Older people in Africa are the least lonely because they have large families with grandchildren who talk to, play with, and look after them. Retirement homes are rare in Africa, unlike in the West. It is the child’s duty to look after their parents in old age. Families care for their elderly and weak members. However, Westerners and East Asians live longer than Africans despite their rich social lives.
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By Ikechukwu ORJI
