New Beginnings in an Ancient Region: well-being in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Moller, Valerie, Roberts, Benjamin J
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: book chapter , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61701 , vital:28050 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-39101-4_7
- Description: In this chapter, we trace the well-being of people living in the sub-Saharan region of Africa over time, focusing on what are universally considered to be main ingredients of the good life in modern times: health, education, and the income and resources needed to meet basic needs and to prosper. The people of sub-Saharan Africa do not have a common identity, but we have isolated some of the experiences and commonalities that bind the people of the region. The glory of earlier civilizations and of traditional religious beliefs and rituals that cemented the social order and the disruption of African society by foreign incursions during the period of discovery and the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism all had their impact on the African imagination. Well-being in Africa south of the Sahara suffered when people living in Africa were oppressed and exploited between the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries. The winds of change in the 1960s brought freedom and a new sense of dignity. Since independence, there are signs of improvements in key domains of life, but the modern states of sub-Saharan Africa are still addressing the many political and development challenges they face. Optimism and resilience are characteristic of the people living south of the Sahara who have faith that their dreams of a better life will come true.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: book chapter , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61701 , vital:28050 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-39101-4_7
- Description: In this chapter, we trace the well-being of people living in the sub-Saharan region of Africa over time, focusing on what are universally considered to be main ingredients of the good life in modern times: health, education, and the income and resources needed to meet basic needs and to prosper. The people of sub-Saharan Africa do not have a common identity, but we have isolated some of the experiences and commonalities that bind the people of the region. The glory of earlier civilizations and of traditional religious beliefs and rituals that cemented the social order and the disruption of African society by foreign incursions during the period of discovery and the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism all had their impact on the African imagination. Well-being in Africa south of the Sahara suffered when people living in Africa were oppressed and exploited between the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries. The winds of change in the 1960s brought freedom and a new sense of dignity. Since independence, there are signs of improvements in key domains of life, but the modern states of sub-Saharan Africa are still addressing the many political and development challenges they face. Optimism and resilience are characteristic of the people living south of the Sahara who have faith that their dreams of a better life will come true.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Waiting for happiness in Africa
- Moller, Valerie, Roberts, Benjamin J, Tiliouine, Habib, Loschky, Jay
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J , Tiliouine, Habib , Loschky, Jay
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67225 , vital:29061 , https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17-Ch4_lr.pdf
- Description: publisher version , From 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 decade . There are also considerable inequalities in life evaluations in African countries, and this inequality in happiness has increased over the past years . 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 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.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Roberts, Benjamin J , Tiliouine, Habib , Loschky, Jay
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67225 , vital:29061 , https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17-Ch4_lr.pdf
- Description: publisher version , From 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 decade . There are also considerable inequalities in life evaluations in African countries, and this inequality in happiness has increased over the past years . 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 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.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Whatever happened to social indicators in Africa? Whatever happened indeed! A developing world perspective on the Kenneth C. Land and Alex C. Michalos report on 'Fifty years after the Social Indicators Movement'
- Authors: Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:24531 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36238 , https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-017-1555-y
- Description: Africa is a latecomer to the Social Indicators Movement. The first social indicators for Third World countries were developed by outsiders and covered almost exclusively topics related to basic needs and development. In response to Kenneth Land's and Alex Michalos' historical assessment and their agenda for future 'social indicators/quality of life/well-being' research, the commentary traces how South Africa and sub-Saharan countries-with a little help from many friends who are pioneers in the movement-have succeeded in developing their own home-grown social indicators movement. Addressing some of the themes outlined in the agenda that Land and Michalos set for future research, the commentary discusses the importance of monitoring social change occurring in African society in a 'post-industrialized and much more globalized, and digitized-computerizedroboticized' era: How will new values and nom1s impact on the quality of life of future generations of African people?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:24531 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36238 , https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-017-1555-y
- Description: Africa is a latecomer to the Social Indicators Movement. The first social indicators for Third World countries were developed by outsiders and covered almost exclusively topics related to basic needs and development. In response to Kenneth Land's and Alex Michalos' historical assessment and their agenda for future 'social indicators/quality of life/well-being' research, the commentary traces how South Africa and sub-Saharan countries-with a little help from many friends who are pioneers in the movement-have succeeded in developing their own home-grown social indicators movement. Addressing some of the themes outlined in the agenda that Land and Michalos set for future research, the commentary discusses the importance of monitoring social change occurring in African society in a 'post-industrialized and much more globalized, and digitized-computerizedroboticized' era: How will new values and nom1s impact on the quality of life of future generations of African people?
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
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