Looking for Happiness? Move to Africa

NICOLA GAILITS

            The iPhone comes out. I jump on the bandwagon and buy it. You’re next door. You’ve watched the same ads, but you can’t afford it. Wouldn’t that make you feel …..

(A) miserable            (B) excluded            (C) dejected            (D) unsatisfied            (E) all of the above?

            On separate trips I visited Ghana, in West Africa, and then Harlem, an area of NYC largely populated by African Americans. These worlds are different in almost every way you can imagine. People wouldn’t be able to understand each other even if they both spoke English. Ghana struggles in poverty while Harlem enjoys relative prosperity. But who enjoys life more? Is it the people from Harlem living in the underbelly of a glamorous American city, or the Ghanaians of Western Africa?

            The obvious answer is Harlem. They have access to healthcare, education, a reasonable climate, and, very importantly, media. With media comes the desire for a high life, and, for many in Harlem, it’s one they can’t have. After working two jobs after school, they cram for a test, babysit their five-year-old sister, and watch Gossip Girls shopping in Paris. Those in Ghana, on the other hand, have no access to the lives of celebrities. They haven’t heard of Coach (besides the bus), and they are unfamiliar with pizza. Their neighbours are the ones they compare themselves to. That comparison is on a much smaller scale: who sold more mangoes at the market today?

            What I’m getting to is that happiness can be thought of as the gap between what you have and what you want. When this gap is abnormally large, like in Harlem and Orange County, unhappiness festers because the temptations of a fabulous life are dangled in one’s face. The average lower class American makes $1000s more than the typical Ghanaian, but who has a more satisfying life?

            We learn about the suffering of the African people and their struggle to survive, but our struggle is different. What we deal with isn’t just physical. It’s mental suffering, knowing you’re worse off than that man on 5th Avenue. Poorer Americans have more opportunities, more material goods, and better healthcare than Ghanaians. But, overall, Ghanaians may be more pleased with their day-to-day lives.

            This may sound ignorant or insensitive of what Ghanaians face daily, such as barely being able to provide enough rice for their families. But you can see the happiness in the culture and on their faces. Ghanaian children yell and wave vigorously at the side of the road, exultant to see you. Everyone wants to meet you, shake your hand, and be your friend. All across Ghana, signs read “God’s shoe shop” and “In God we trust”. Even if their crops fail, their trust in God never does. There’s also respect for another’s work and family that you don’t see over here. Why steal from your neighbour when you rely on each other to get by?

            Essentially, once you have the necessities (food, water, shelter), you’re looking for happiness. Whether that means making piles of money or traveling the world, everybody looks for it. Some people just have different expectations of what happiness is. Ghanaians appreciate what little they do have, and the media can’t throw in their face what they don’t have.

            Life is like a movie review. You’re told it’s outstanding, five stars. You expect a good show, and you end up disappointed. When you’re told it’s going to be dreadful, you look out for things you can enjoy. So if you’re looking for happiness, don’t look to your neighbour’s house, look to the mud huts.