You are Welcome

“You are welcome” is a very common phrase in West Africa. Most often it is used to invite someone to share your meal. In fact, it is really unusual for Africans not to invite whoever is in the vicinity to share their meal. I suspect that they are more generous with westerners than with locals, but I nevertheless find it a wonderful custom and I have tried to emulate it.

I wonder why this custom exists in Africa but not in Sweden. I suspect this behaviour naturally develops in places where people are not always able to feed themselves. Sweden used to be poor, and perhaps we had such customs two hundred years ago, but I doubt it. In fact, Sweden may the least generous country of all the twenty or so I have experienced.