Africa’s middle class is disappearing not because of low income, but because of high illusion.
We wanted to look rich before we learned to stay stable.
We got access to credit, delivery apps, and soft-life hashtags, but not the literacy to manage them.
Now everyone has a little something, but no one seems to have enough.
We’ve mistaken lifestyle for progress.
We live in furnished rentals, drive cars on loans, drink imported problems, and post happiness we can’t afford. 
We call it growth, but it’s really glorified survival with better lighting.
Our parents worked to own.
We work to impress.
We’re constantly trying to upgrade everything, except our habits.
Financial literacy didn’t grow as fast as our appetite for validation.
We know how to spend, not how to sustain.
We celebrate salary day like it’s harvest season, then starve by mid-month. We fear looking broke more than being broke.
The truth? A middle class built on appearances collapses under inflation.
Because debt doesn’t care about aesthetics, it collects quietly.
Until we start teaching money management with the same energy we teach “soft life,” we’ll keep dressing wealthier while sinking deeper.
The middle class isn’t dying, it’s drowning.
In lifestyle, not poverty.
Elvis W.
