The Ghanaian secret to a long life

Returning to the airport at Hamburg, we were driven by a chatty Ghanaian who told us the secret of a long life. We praised his excellent English, and he reminded us that Ghana had been under British rule, and English was the first language. "Colonialism was the worst thing that happened to Africa," he said. "Until then, the whole of Africa, excepting the Arabic north, was built of independent individual tribes, each living in relative peace." He told us, they did not have much, but what they had they held in common, with a shared sense of hospitality; anyone could go anywhere in Africa and be offered food and shelter. They used little from the land that had supported them for thousands of years. Colonialism ripped that model apart, forcing peoples with different languages and tribal customs into politically divided countries, then leaving them to fight among themselves for power and control. He was one of eleven children, but when he returned home, he treated his possessions as his own, annoyed that they would borrow his things, but his family, who still held all things in common, called him arrogant and told him to stay in Germany.

He had lived in Hamburg for 31 years, and thought it the best place in Germany: "the only place where they accept everyone without prejudice." He extolled the many advantages of the city for a while then mentioned his father had lived well into his 90's and had had three wives. He once asked his father, "why did you have three wives?" His father told him, it was the secret of a long life. "Women just like to talk," he said, "morning to night, they talk talk talk! If you only have one wife, she will talk to you all day, and you get no peace. So you take a second wife, and then they talk to each other and leave you alone. Then, when the two wives start to talk together about you, you take a third wife, and they just talk about her! So you live your life in peace, and you get to a healthy old age."

The taxi-man had suggested to his wife that he ought to get a second wife. "The day you do that," she said, "is the day you write out your will and testament!" He did not suggest it again to her. She phoned him while we were in the car. "She is always checking up on me, to ask where I'm going and who I'm carrying," he said. "She gives me no peace!"

Looking up facts on Ghana when we returned, it certainly seems a delightful place. As Kate Bethel, an American student at the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia, wrote: "How could people with so little be so happy? What I have realized in my short time here is it’s not the things you have that make you happy, but it really is the people and relationships. In Ghana, value is in your family and relationships above all else. People are not going to remember what you have, but they will remember how you made them feel. I think this is part of their key to happiness, and we should all take note." (quoted from: The happiest people in the world?)