Almost a quarter of Africans report feeling lonely, making the continent the loneliest in the world, according to a new World Health Organization study. The report, released in June, found that 24% of people in Africa experience loneliness, with adolescents aged 13 to 17 most affected. The findings challenge traditional views of African society as collectivist and closely knit.
Dr Cleopa Mailu, a former Kenyan health minister and member of the WHO commission on social connection, said he initially rejected the findings. He attributed rising loneliness to rapid urbanisation, globalisation, and the erosion of traditional community structures. “In traditional settings, wealth was defined differently,” Mailu said. “Now there are different levels of poverty and you find people are not together.”
Macyleen, a 33-year-old single mother of four in Gqeberha, South Africa, embodies the crisis. She has felt lonely since her mother died when she was nine. “The world is changing so fast,” she said. “There’s too much pressure to do well, but we are in an environment that is not helping us.” She struggles to socialise while building her childminding business and fears judgment as a single mother.
The WHO has declared loneliness a pressing global health concern and launched an international commission to address it. In Africa, however, social wellbeing remains neglected in health policies, which focus instead on communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Psychologist Lateefat Odunuga said Africa is shifting from close-knit communities to more individualistic lifestyles driven by urbanisation. Macyleen added that people are copying western culture, becoming more selfish: “It’s all about me or my immediate people.”
