One reason I enjoy visiting Africa is that I get what I call my “African shot”: despite difficulties, optimism transpires there. To me this is in sharp contrast to the gloomy attitude that many of us in Europe have developed over the last few years.
In my post of last week (“Africa Rising” – Under Question?“) I shared my optimistic view of Africa’s future. I decided to search for some information about the optimism of Africans – I tell you, it’s a great contagious disease! I found some interesting information. The Pew Research Center surveys global attitudes and trends. Let me give you some information about 3 questions they asked people about their country’s economic situation in 2015:
- Is the country’s economic situation good or bad?
% of people responding “good”:- African countries: highest in Ethiopia (89%); lowest in Ghana (26%);
- the world: highest in China (90%); lowest in Ukraine (3%).
- Do you expect our country’s economic situation to improve, remain the same or worsen in the next year?
% of people responding “improve”:- African countries: highest in Nigeria (92%); lowest in Tanzania (43%)
- the world: actually, Nigeria is the world’s highest, followed by Burkina Fasso (85%), and Ethiopia and China (84%); lowest in Poland (16%).
- When children today grow up, will they be better off financially than their parents?
% of people responding “better off”:- African countries: highest in Nigeria (84%); lowest in Tanzania (33%);
- the world: highest in Vietnam (91%); lowest in France (14%).
This confirmed my perceptions that Africans tend to be optimistic, while Europeans fall on the pessimistic side . I’m not saying that these perceptions are well informed necessarily. For instance, Nigerians are increasingly optimistic (positive answers to question 1 above went up in 2015 to 57% from 39% in 2014). Given Nigeria’s dependence on oil, increased optimism doesn’t look consistent with the dramatic fall in oil prices. However, a positive outlook puts us in motion, while a negative one paralyzes us quite easily.
You may want to think whether you also need an “African shot”!
This very interesting study doenb’t really surprise me. Yes, Africans are definitely much more optimistic than we, the Europeans.
According to me, two reasons:
– The average African population is much more younger.
– Their vision is short, not long term (maybe precarity has to do with it).
Congratulations for your excellent articles.
Best regards,
MHR
Thanks, MHR! I agree to the reasons you indicate. However, to the point on short term vision, I have seen it co-existing with a long-term vision that some leaders have to transform African societies. I commented on this at an earlier post: https://blog.iese.edu/africa/2014/09/03/thinking-long-term-in-africa/
Great post! I totally agree with you. Every time I visit an African country, I got the same impression. Africans tend to be optimistic, while Europeans fall on the pessimistic side. Thank you for sharing your insights and experience.
Thanks! When I came back from a long stay in Nigeria and Kenya, one of my colleagues told me: “Africa, you are re-energized!” And certainly I was!
This is really really true! 🙂