Prickly pear line the perimeters of brick-red fields.
In a few there are crops, but in many the cactus is the only hint of green.
Small children, who should be in school, herd Zebu cattle along dusty tracks.
Women sell bags of charcoal outside flimsy wooden huts by the main road.
It is the tail end of the dry season in southern Madagascar;
locals are yearning for rain.
They are short of cash and often hungry.
They are also lonely.
Many people think loneliness is a first-world problem:
that rich societies become atomised
as people chase wealth rather than social connections.
But surveys suggest this is wrong.
Western, individualistic societies,
where more people live alone and religion is marginal, tend to be less lonely.
People in poor countries are much likelier to be lonely.
And the loneliest region of all, surprisingly, is Africa,
the home of ubuntu, the sociable notion
that "people are people through other people."
In 2024 over a quarter of Africans surveyed said they had felt lonely the previous day.
For those who like definitions, loneliness is the painful mismatch