The Unhappiest Place On Earth (And How Happiness Is Measured)

Most African countries have predominantly unhappy populations according to newly-instated happiness indexes. But this may all change very soon indeed. And that's a good thing for all of us.

The African continent is not exactly happy right now. Various indexes paint Africa in blood red, seemingly confirming that the "black continent" is indeed quite black. Perhaps it's no wonder. After all Africa is reputed for its wars, natural disasters and famine. African countries plagued with such problems are not going to have happy people.

Happiness is an important issue. At the end of the day, happiness is our end goal—not only for ourselves in the present but also for our children and grandchildren in the future. How are we going to promote political, economical and social systems in the next few decades, when the Earth's population reaches nine billion, if those people are not happy? The African continent's role in the global economy by then will also be more significant than it is now, judging by its current rate of growth. Hence why it is important to start examining this seemingly unhappy continent. If happiness can be adequately measured, governments may be able to optimise specific factors to set the appropriate conditions for happiness to flourish.

So, how can happiness be measured? One way to go is to pinpoint specific ingredients for happiness and weigh them in the happiness pie. The first World Happiness Report, commissioned by the UN and published last year by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, US, affirms that happiness correlates strongly with specific things such as wealth, health and national institutions. The report shows that happier countries tend to be richer countries, mental health is the biggest contributor to unhappiness in any country—I've written about the mistreatment of people with mental illnesses in several African countries—and political freedom and absence of corruption are more important than income. Experts have known about several of those contributors for a while. A review of the literature by the British think-tank The New Economics Foundation, listed some similar specific correlations. Among them: income inequality, unemployment, inflation and some types of debt.

Several happiness indexes attempt to factor in those specific happiness contributors in their measurements. One of them is The Legatum Prosperity Index, which covers 142 countries (see first map above). The index refers to the happiness contributors as the foundations for happiness and groups them into eight topics. These include economy, governance, opportunity and health, amongst others. The Legatum Prosperity Index portrays Africa as a very unhappy continent. 24 of the bottom 30 countries in the index are from Sub-Saharan Africa. The highest ranked Sub-Saharan African country is Botswana at 70th, barely in the top half.

But because happiness means different things for different people across societies and time, it may be more accurate to measure happiness by simply asking people whether they are happy. The Happy Planet Index (HPI) (see second map above) does just that by incorporating answers to the "Ladder of Life" question from the Gallup World Poll:

"This asks respondents to imagine a ladder, where 0 represents the worst possible life and 10 the best possible life, and report the step of the ladder they feel they currently stand on."

HPI also factors in life expectancy, which it considers to be a universally important measure of health and ecological footprint, a measure of resource consumption calculated by the World Wildlife Fund. Perhaps because of the more significant weight of the environment in this index, some African countries are less in the red. The maghreb countries, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, are relatively well-positioned at 26, 39 and 42 respectively. However Chad and Botswana (deemed the happiest African country by the Legatum Prosperity Index) are positioned at the very bottom of the index.

While some disparities between those indexes are obvious—I'm looking at you Botswana—the general facet of Africa typically remains red across. And that is worrying because it appears to point to an inherent malaise of an entire continent. The unhappiness is mostly likely a reflection on the past though and things have begun to change since then. For the past ten years, Africa has been developing and this will surely start to show in future happiness indexes.

The economical signs that Africa is lifting its head is clear. Here is a number-packed paragraph by Oliver August, Africa editor at The Economist:

"Sub-Saharan Africa has made huge leaps in the last decade. Malaria deaths in some of the worst-affected countries have declined by 30% and HIV infections by up to 74%. Life expectancy across Africa has increased by about 10% and child mortality rates in most countries have been falling steeply. A booming economy has made a big difference. Real income per person has increased by more than 30%, whereas in the previous 20 years it shrank by nearly 10%. Africa is the world's fastest-growing continent just now. Over the next decade its GDP is expected to rise by an average of 6% a year, not least thanks to foreign direct investment, which has risen from $15 billion in 2002 to $37 billion in 2006 and $46 billion in 2012."

Africa's rise is underpinned by three significant changes that are, if not already happening, at least brewing:

1. Africa will have more people with half of the world's population growth happening in Africa because Africans are living longer. This means that African economies will be able to rely on an ample workforce;

2. More Africans are moving to cities as urbanisation spreads through the continent. Cities agglomerate creative people and can become innovation hubs;

3. Technology is coming in full force across Africa. There are more phones than adults in Africa. This leads to easier and better communication and education. In Kenya for example, the mobile payment system M-Pesa is responsible for 31% of the country's $33.62 billion GDP.

These three changes point to an impending happiness boom in the "black continent." The changes are favourable to better economies, social life and technological progress, all indicators of development. But it's not all rosy yet. Some economists believe that Africa is not actually on a development phase but rather on a upward phase in an ever-apparent cycle of ups and downs. They argue that any sustainable development should, at least initially, focus a lot on manufacturing, just like the US and most of Europe did back in the day. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz advised developing countries as such:

"Don't do as the US tells you, do as the US did."

Furthermore, the political situation in Africa is looking grim at best. Not only are there unrests in the most developed Maghreb countries, numerous African countries are once again being dumped into wars, no less because of Western countries—the US, the UK and France mostly—in search of natural resources. These countries do not hesitate to employ violence as testifies renowned investigative journalist John Pilger:

"A full-scale invasion of Africa is under way. The United States is deploying troops in 35 African countries, beginning with Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger.

The invasion has almost nothing to do with "Islamism" and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China. Unlike China, the US and its allies are prepared to use a degree of violence, as demonstrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine."

And this is perhaps the greatest barrier to Africa's happiness: politics, a term that I'm using to encompass local governance and international interference. If Africa can fight through this hardship, then it looks set to ride along the world's third industrial revolution.

Why should you care about Africa rising? Besides the obvious reason that millions of people will live better and happier lives, Africa's rise will reverberate across the globe no less because the world has never been more interconnected. A boom in Africa will eventually lead to more research and development, that is more scientists discovering more things, adding to science. Following the same logic, science's global ability to provide better standards of living will be propulsed. It's a butterfly effect of sorts, really, with the first flap of the wings being happiness.