Abstract
Despite the enthusiasm that prevailed during sub-Saharan Africa’s initial wave of independence, representations of quality of life in the region over the last half-century focused on themes that typically characterize failed states: maladministration, violence and conflict, disease, impoverishment and suffering. Although considerable hardship persists, the subcontinent experienced impressive economic growth over the last decade. This, together with increasing gains from state-led social spending, has prompted a new narrative that speaks of promise and opportunity. Against this backdrop, the chapter reviews quality of life in the region using select objective and subjective wellbeing measures. The results confirm the general pattern of recent social progress, though lingering deprivation, inequality and often difficult political conditions. While this situation is reflected in relatively low life satisfaction evaluations, it is also accompanied by a resolute optimism that attests to the resilience of the region’s citizens in the face of adversity. The chapter also assesses the influence of certain objective conditions on subjective wellbeing at the macro-level.
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Notes
- 1.
This phrase originates from Ryszard Kapuściński’s 2001 volume of African journalism of the same name.
- 2.
The 16 landlocked countries are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
- 3.
In the literature on small states, the classification of a nation as “small” is frequency based on a population size threshold of 1.5 million. (Jahan and Wang 2013) We have slightly relaxed this criterion to allow countries such as Gambia, Gabon and Namibia to be categorised as small states.
- 4.
- 5.
See Annex Table 23.9 for selected population indicators for countries in the region.
- 6.
Total fertility rate is measured as the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.
- 7.
See Annex Table 23.10 for selected economic indicators for countries in the region.
- 8.
Vulnerable employment refers to precarious work that places people at risk of economic hardship. The International Labour Organisation defines vulnerable employment as those in the labour market who are own-account workers (which is associated, particularly in developing countries, with subsistence agriculture and other activities such as petty trade) and contributing family workers (also known as unpaid family workers).
- 9.
These estimates are drawn from World Bank data which defines poverty as living on less than 1.25 dollars a day.
- 10.
- 11.
Mattes (2008) outlined a range of difficulties with the sampling methodology, including the need for greater coverage in the countries sampled as well as larger sample sizes.
- 12.
The countries are: Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone in Western Africa; Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe in Eastern Africa; Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa; and Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland in Southern Africa.
- 13.
Adjusted net enrolment rate in primary education, using the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database.
- 14.
Ranging from 15 cases in Zimbabwe to 377 cases in Nigeria, with a total sub-sample for sub-Saharan Africa of 914 interviews. This accounts for approximately a tenth of the total sample in the global survey, which consisted of 9072 interviews.
- 15.
The Mountain Striving Scale was somewhat different from the standard Cantril Ladder. In contexts where ladders were less commonly employed, Cantril experimented with a depiction of a mountain with 11 ascending steps. This was adopted by the Gallup-Kettering study.
- 16.
The expectation is that this will increase to up to 35 countries by the completion of the survey round.
- 17.
Iraq has the lowest affect balance score of 148 countries in the 2011 Gallup World Poll, and is the only case with a negative overall score. This is attributable to an exceptionally high level of negative affect (59), in contrast with a relatively low experience of positive emotion (50).
- 18.
The ‘suffering and smiling’ phrase draws inspiration from the Fela Kuti album “Shuffering and Shmiling” and the Patrick Chabal (2009) volume “Africa: The Politics of Suffering and Smiling”.
- 19.
Economic growth was measured in terms of the average annual growth rate of real GDP per capita between 2007 and 2012. The same pattern applies when a longer interval is applied, covering 2000–2012.
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Roberts, B.J., Gordon, S.L., Møller, V., Struwig, J. (2015). Shadow of the Sun – The Distribution of Wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Glatzer, W., Camfield, L., Møller, V., Rojas, M. (eds) Global Handbook of Quality of Life. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6_23
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