Africa is largely considered an evincible inferior continent by many; and poor. Most people appreciate the high levels of material poverty that strike the lives of the Africans unfavourably across the continent. Some people may feel unfortunate to live in Africa and others may feel melancholic that they are not residents of such a pitiable land. It is not until such people free their minds and experience the generosity of Africa that they come to appreciate the richness of Africa.
Generosity is one of the key components of Africa’s community life. The generosity of African people is not in monetary value. It is the generosity of the heart that constitutes love as the prime, birthing a packaged nature of kindness, encouragement, happiness, respect and other virtues. Such generosity doesn’t have its roots from privilege but from values to which our African societies have attached much respect. Time is a precision of experience of old encumbered in the warmth of youthfulness. The expressive potent of admiral attributes. To decipher the trueness of this beautiful utopia basked with a dirt of treachery as prejudiced perception wounds inversely our pride, we are made to believe that alien is greater and glorious.
Children born in such societies pick up these virtues and own them. For example, most African children are extremely willing to share their time playing with others or sharing the smallest pancake .This makes generosity part of their humanity that is ready to share infinitely. A value that loses its gist in the wake of unstable evolution, misplaced needs and preferences that are topped with lost identity. Who am I? The subconscious analogy devastates the waning of a becoming personality. To flow with the energies around is like disintegrating to nothingness; becoming an irresolute force that is unidentified.
It is through generosity of the heart that Africans can build strong relationships with both the self and others. It can come to your notice that people of the same African village are related in some way even though not biologically. The valour of expressiveness intertwining with the beauty of an embodied soul. Covering up the expositions of what might not have been seen, and perfecting the likelihood of eternity.
Even foreigners can have this sentiment and attachment. If you have ever come in Africa, in most cases you must have been given a name. Someone must have told you your clan where you belong. A warm welcome is given despite of race and colour.
It is actually through this generosity of the heart that true happiness and bright smiles are evidenced on African faces despite the many challenges faced by our continent. Such pure happiness is a necessity to everyone and does not stem from materialistic wealth.
The centrality of relationships has made Africa advantageous in terms of happiness. The lack of non-materialistic generosity (which centralises relationships) has caused the western people epidemics of loneliness, anxiety, and at times suicide in spite of their advanced technology and high levels of income. In my thinking if Europeans can also copy at least this style of living, the epidemics can be solved without paying a psychologist.
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Vanessa Kimuri and Julius Domba are students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda.
