This past week I was reading a newspaper article in the East African, an English language newspaper I pick up any time I am in Mbeya. This particular article discussed the results from a recently released UN World Happiness report. Not surprisingly nine of the top ten happiest countries were in Europe, With Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries leading the way (Canada was the only non-European country to break the top ten). The top ten least happy countries were what really surprised me. There were the usual countries that most people would suspect like the Congo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and even Togo (eight of the top ten in this case were found in Sub-Saharan Africa) These countries have a recent history of heinous human rights atrocities, their people are living in extreme poverty and in some cases are raged with civil war. Who wouldn’t believe that the people of these countries weren’t happy?
As I kept reading I found that Tanzania was listed as one of the top ten least happy countries. This really shocked me. The article maintained that the study took many factors into consideration not just the over all wealth of the country but things like the strength of social support offered to citizens, absence of corruption, and the amount of personal and political freedoms were taken into account. Even weighing these things in my mind I was still hard pressed to consider Tanzania an inherently unhappy country. I thought of at least five other countries that failed to make the list that appear to be a lot worse off than Tanzania.
The people I have had the pleasure of meeting and living among this year have been some of the most genuinely happy and warm people I have ever met. I know that it is part of their culture to be welcoming and inherently communal, but the extent that I have witnessed it still blows my mind. I see more people smiling and laughing here than I have anywhere else that I have traveled. Again, maybe it is just the people I am around, but even then I am amazed by them. Ileje district, the district I have been living in, is one of the more rural and poorer districts in Tanzania. The people here have so little, many don’t even have electricity or running water, they get by on so little that I am amazed by how they care for each other and not a day goes by where I am not greeted with a huge smile or have a laugh with people in the village. At first I thought this was just something they were doing to be nice to an outsider but, the more I took notice I realized that it was this way for everyone.
Coming from America where we are indoctrinated to believe that happiness means having a flat screen television, smart phone, computers, nice cars and a Big Mac, I wondered how any one could survive without these attachments I had grown so fond of. Well my friends I can say that the people here are surviving without these things and are all the more happy because they are not caught up in it all.
I can admit that Tanzania might not have the most corruption free government form what the people have told me and I have observed, but that’s not to say they aren’t trying. People here have a sense of personal and political freedom that is not found in many of the other African countries. The structures for providing social support are gaining more backing and hopefully before long there will be a better system for the people of Tanzania. I cant deny the fact that Tanzanians don’t wish at times that they were American, or European. They marvel at all the things I have brought here, but once I tell them about some of the realities of America and people from the West they seem a little less enthusiastic about it. Living with the people day in and day out I can say that I feel like the study really missed its mark by naming Tanzania as one of the least happy nations on earth.
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