Africa’s Flourishing: Beyond Wealth

By Darius Spearman (africanelements)

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Understanding Flourishing: A Holistic View of Life

What does it truly mean to live a good life? For many of us, especially those in the African Diaspora, this question goes beyond simply having enough money or feeling happy for a moment. It touches on our connections, our purpose, and our place in the world. Psychologists and social scientists are exploring a powerful idea called flourishing, which offers a deeper answer to this question. Flourishing is a comprehensive concept of well-being that extends beyond mere happiness or economic prosperity. It encompasses a multidimensional state where individuals experience a sense of purpose, positive relationships, good health, and overall thriving (The Conversation).

Unlike simple happiness, which can be fleeting, flourishing implies a sustained state of optimal human functioning and growth across various aspects of life. It also differs from general well-being by often incorporating a broader, more integrated view of an individual’s life, including their character, meaning, and engagement with the world (Frontiers in Psychology). While well-being often refers to an individual’s state of health, happiness, and comfort, flourishing takes a more holistic and integrated approach. Flourishing explicitly considers the interplay between an individual and their environment, including community factors, social connections, and even broader societal and cultural contexts (Taylor & Francis Online). It recognizes that true thriving is not solely an internal state but is deeply influenced by external conditions and the ability to contribute to and benefit from a supportive environment. This means that flourishing measures might include indicators related to social cohesion, civic engagement, and environmental quality, going beyond typical personal well-being metrics.

The Global Flourishing Study: Mapping Human Well-being

To better understand what makes people thrive across the globe, researchers launched the Global Flourishing Study. This is an ambitious five-year longitudinal study involving over 200,000 participants across 22 countries, aiming to measure global patterns of human flourishing (The Conversation). The study assesses domains such as health, happiness, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security to provide a comprehensive view of well-being (Nature.com). The study’s goal is to find patterns of human flourishing across cultures, examining if people in some countries thrive more and what factors contribute most to well-being (The Conversation). It tracks a rich set of flourishing indicators for both scientific understanding and policy development (Nature.com).

The Global Flourishing Study identifies six key dimensions of flourishing. These are happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial and material stability (The Conversation). Participants rate their experiences in these areas on a scale from 0 to 10, with additional questions on trust, loneliness, hope, and resilience (The Conversation). These scales are commonly used Likert-type scales where respondents rate their agreement with a statement or their experience of a particular feeling on a numerical range. For example, a question might ask, “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is completely dissatisfied and 10 is completely satisfied, how satisfied are you with your life overall?” A higher score indicates a greater degree of the measured attribute. These scores are then often averaged across individuals or groups to provide a composite index of flourishing (Frontiers in Public Health).

A multidimensional approach to flourishing acknowledges that human well-being is complex and cannot be captured by a single metric. It integrates various aspects of life that contribute to an individual’s overall thriving. These domains typically include: Health, encompassing physical and mental well-being; Happiness, referring to subjective well-being and positive emotions; Meaning and Purpose, involving a sense of direction and significance; Character and Virtue, relating to the development of positive moral traits; Relationships, focusing on the quality of social connections; and Financial Security, pertaining to having sufficient resources to meet basic needs. These domains are interconnected, and flourishing is understood as a state where an individual is doing well across many, if not all, of them (Nature.com). For instance, Character and Virtue refers to the development and practice of positive moral qualities. A person demonstrating character might consistently act with honesty and integrity. Virtue could be seen in acts of kindness or courage. Meaning and Purpose is about having a sense of direction, significance, and value in one’s life. An example of meaning could be finding deep satisfaction in contributing to a cause larger than oneself, like environmental conservation. Purpose might manifest as a clear goal that drives one’s actions, such as dedicating one’s career to scientific discovery (PMC NCBI).

Africa’s Flourishing Landscape: Challenging Assumptions

Of the 22 nations included in the Global Flourishing Study, five were African: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Egypt (The Conversation). While these African countries did not top the global rankings (Indonesia and Mexico did), Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt reported relatively high flourishing scores, especially when financial status was excluded (The Conversation). This separation of economic and non-economic indicators is crucial for understanding the nuanced relationship between wealth and well-being. Financial status, often measured by GDP per capita or individual income, is a significant predictor of material well-being and access to resources. However, it does not fully capture the richness of human experience or the quality of life. By separating it, researchers can isolate the impact of non-material factors, challenge the assumption of economic determinism, and highlight cultural and social strengths (Nature.com).

Nigeria, for example, ranked 5th globally in flourishing scores that excluded financial indicators, placing it ahead of many wealthier nations. Nigerians showed particular strengths in social relationships, character, and virtues (The Conversation). Kenya ranked 7th, Egypt 10th, Tanzania 11th, and South Africa 13th, each demonstrating unique strengths in areas like meaning, social connection, or mental health (The Conversation). These findings challenge the dominant narrative that Africa is “lagging behind” in development. They reveal a more nuanced picture of what it means to live a good life, emphasizing that material resources are not the only determinant of well-being. In addition, a separate 2024 study analyzed data from the Gallup World Poll (2020–2022) across 40 African countries, revealing a more detailed and culture-sensitive picture of flourishing on the continent (The Conversation).

Beyond Western Metrics: Africa’s Unique Strengths

The 2024 study on flourishing in Africa revealed that African populations often score high in meaning, character, and social relationships despite economic hardship (The Conversation). This offers an important corrective to Western assumptions about well-being, which often prioritize individual achievement and material wealth. There is significant diversity within and between African countries, with Mauritius consistently ranking highest in life evaluations, while Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe scored lowest (The Conversation). East African countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia showed strong performance in social well-being indicators, such as feeling respected or learning new things daily, even with low economic indicators (The Conversation).

West African nations such as Senegal and Ghana scored high in emotional well-being, with many reporting positive daily emotions. Southern African nations, despite income inequality, displayed resilience through strong community ties and cultural practices like ubuntu (The Conversation). These findings underscore that flourishing in Africa cannot be reduced solely to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita or to Western norms of success. Instead, indigenous African ideas about a connected society offer unique perspectives on flourishing, emphasizing community, interconnectedness, and shared responsibility. These concepts include: Ubuntu, a Southern African philosophy often translated as “I am because we are,” emphasizing human interconnectedness and compassion. Ujamaa, a Swahili term meaning “familyhood” or “cooperative economics,” promoting communal living and collective effort. Teranga, a Wolof word from Senegal, meaning “hospitality” or “welcoming,” embodying generosity and openness. Wazobia, a portmanteau from the words for “come” in Nigeria’s three major languages, symbolizing unity in diversity. And Al-Musawat wal Tarahum, Arabic terms meaning “equality and compassion/mercy,” emphasizing fairness and empathy (The Conversation).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darius Spearman has been a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College since 2007. He is the author of several books, including Between The Color Lines: A History of African Americans on the California Frontier Through 1890. You can visit Darius online at africanelements.org.