I am working on a book about happiness, in the course of which I commissioned a couple short articles by people from different backgrounds. They were asked the question, "who are the happiest people?" Here is part of a piece of writing answering that question from the point of view of a Nigerian. As you can see, the author notes that Nigerians are thought of as being happy.
"Nigerians have been referred to as the happiest people in the world, an irony given that almost two thirds of the population live under a dollar a day. Is there something in our culture that makes us live a happy life? I’ll leave that to the experts to decide. I will point out a deep belief in destiny, my people call it akalaka, and a certain willingness to accept that destiny. Perhaps this is where we draw strength and hope from. Perhaps it is from our ever willing and ever teeming legion of religious leaders promising us that tomorrow will be better and urging us to believe against all possibl…
"Nigerians have been referred to as the happiest people in the world, an irony given that almost two thirds of the population live under a dollar a day. Is there something in our culture that makes us live a happy life? I’ll leave that to the experts to decide. I will point out a deep belief in destiny, my people call it akalaka, and a certain willingness to accept that destiny. Perhaps this is where we draw strength and hope from. Perhaps it is from our ever willing and ever teeming legion of religious leaders promising us that tomorrow will be better and urging us to believe against all possibl…