Africa : Etats usés, miracles ordinaires

The self-made man does not exist in Africa. If the motto of Europe is individualism: "I think therefore I am", Africa's would be communalism: " I relate, therefore I am". In Zulu there is a saying: "One is a person through others", or as John Mbiti, the Kenyan theologian, put it:
" I am because we are and, since we are, therefore I am."
Africans know who is family and know where they come in it, both vertically and horizontally . A man without a family is no-one. He is nothing.

Westerners arriving in Africa for the first time are always struck by its beauty and size - even the sky seems higher. And they often find themselves suddenly cracked open. They lose inhibitions feel more alive, more themselves, and they begin to understand why, until then, they have only half lived.
In Africa the essentials of existence - light, earth, water, birth, family, love, sickness, death, - are more immediate, more intense.
Visitors suddenty realize what is life for.
To risk e huge generalization : amid our wasteful wealth and time-pressed lives we have lost human values that still abound in Africa.