For example, among the Shona of Zimbabwe, common names include farai (be happy), farisai (be very happy), tichafara (we shall be happy), and rufaro (happiness – the name of a stadium in Harare). In Africa, the centrality of happiness to the lives of many people is expressed in folklore, literature, songs, names of people and places. To avert violent conflict, Africa must follow suit in endorsing happiness as the ultimate goal of development and society itself.
In 2012, the United Nations (UN) Network for Sustainable Development published the first World Happiness Report and in 2013 the UN General Assembly, to its credit, endorsed the value of happiness as an important development goal by declaring 20 March International Day of Happiness. Building on that tradition, the Gross National Happiness USA movement is campaigning for the signing of the Charter for Happiness, which obliges government to create conditions for happiness. Underscoring the importance of happiness, the United States Declaration of Independence, for example, stresses the pursuit of happiness, together with liberty and private property, as a fundamental human right. Similarly, commerce and capitalism flourish because of their promises of happiness, through the provision of desired goods and services. The state’s long, contested and convoluted history, about its nature and limits, centred on how best to structure it to promote stability and individual happiness. Political ideologies, revolutions and religions are all based on promises of happiness – on earth or in heaven.
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