Family and community

A key element most people identify when they talk about happiness involves family and community.
In Nigeria the communal way of living is at the heart of daily life.
Family doesn't just include parents and children, brothers and sisters but extends to all relatives.
They are involved life decisions that in the west are left to the individual.
Indeed in western societies families have become increasingly separated as people live more atomised lives, living in big cities and separated by greater physical distances and self-constructed barriers. Many westerners grow-up without a large external family surrounding them and for many even occasional family gatherings such as Christmas becomes an ordeal.
As one comedian George Burns once quiped, "Hapines is having a large, loving caring, close-knit family in another city.
This attitude is not one held my most Nigerians.
As for me my family is very much involved in my life. It can drive mad sometimes for sure, but I would not have it any other way.
Family is everything I guess.

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