COVID19: Calling for an African Response to the Pandemic

At a time when a large part of the world is confined (namely more than a third of the world population (~ 2.6 billion inhabitants to date, spread over 42 countries and territories), in order to protect themselves and find the means to stem the spread of Covid-19, voices are raised to alarm the world and stigmatize Africa and Africans, without any good reasons.

The recent declarations of the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), followed by those of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), the President of the French Republic (on behalf of the G20), and the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, are surprising and shocking for Africans who, since the beginning of the pandemic, have been following the evolution of the crisis rigorously, and adopting anticipation strategies which, until now, have limited the spread of the disease. More than forty states in Africa have responded to the threat by adopting drastic measures, beyond medical and clinical protocols, ranging from the closure of schools, universities; places of worship and other public places, to a state of emergency or a curfew, or even a total lockdown of several big cities. These efforts, which have been spontaneously backed by sponsors from the private sector, civil society, cultural actors, religious and community leaders and the media, deserve to be highly praised.

From China, the virus has spread fairly quickly around the world, crossing all continents. Even if it was quickly brought under control in East Asia (particularly in China and South Korea), it has grown exponentially in Europe, with more than 395,000 cases, and in the United States which, alone, has more than 135,000 active cases. These figures are quite worrisome! France, who seems so concerned about the fate of Africa, has registered a significant number of deaths, like elsewhere in Europe: (more than 2,600), behind Spain (more than 7,300) and Italy (more than 11,300). It is closely followed by the United Kingdom with 1,400 deaths, and where - ironically - the Prime Minister and Crown Prince have been diagnosed positive for Coronavirus.

We could hardly understand the helpless silence of the international community on the situation prevailing on the European continent, at a time when this same community seems suddenly intrigued by the situation in Africa, and ominously announcing a “looming disaster” on the African continent, which is more a figment of their imagination, than a result of rigorous analysis.

The African continent, now indexed by international multilateral institutions, has been tackling Covid-19 since February 14 and has registered to date approximately 5,140 confirmed cases and nearly 150 recorded deaths, more than two thirds of which in North Africa, and in South Africa. On the other hand, history will bear witness to the fact that we, Africans, have noticed the powerlessness of capitalist economic powers calling on China, Russia and Cuba for help!

The extraordinarily alarming prophecy of Mr. Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, preceded by the wake-up call to Africans made by Mr. Tédros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, resulted in the surprising decision of the G20 to mobilize resources in order to help the African continent, when nothing, based on statistics and trends in the evolution of the virus in the world, suggests such a scenario.

On the contrary, to date, the penetration of the virus into Africa, imported mainly from Europe, seems to be under control with few serious cases recorded and a very low death rate (less than 3%), despite the fact that the virus has been present on the continent for more than 45 days.

We are calling on the above-mentioned authorities of the international organizations to consider the seriousness of their unguarded claims, and questioning the scientific foundations of their forecasts which seem more like the outcome of some Machiavellian schemes detrimental to Africans, or even of veiled threats against them.

These words are seen more as an attempt to instill some psychosis into African states which are thus meant to be the breeding ground through which the virus will soon spread to reach millions of people, and thus become a new global threat. While, to date, the emergency is again in Europe and the United States, where the number of deaths runs into tens of thousands, with hundreds of thousands of confirmed serious cases.

Therefore, we are calling on the international community to be more respectful and less paternalistic towards Africa and Africans. Gone are the days when Africa was treated like a scapegoat, the meeting place for all the humanitarian dramas in the world. Today, Africans are, just like people in the rest of the world, informed and prepared to meet contemporary challenges. It is with complete sovereignty that they identify their priorities, their therapeutic choices, the timing and the nature of the requests made to the international community. More than ever, the latter must break away from its neocolonial practices and change its stance regarding international cooperation, based on solidarity and not hegemony.

And since they seem to pay real attention to our needs, we are inviting international multilateral institutions, such as the UN, and financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), as well as the G20 member states, to consider, instead, the cancellation of the public debt of African States, in order to allow us to better deal with this pandemic. Ironic as it may sound, we are asking you to allow us to organize our resilience and prepare for the economic and social consequences that the global production and supply crisis could have on our peoples. Since we do not have the possibilities of creating currencies used by the richest countries in such circumstances, managing the economic and social consequences of this crisis remains the greatest challenge for States in Africa, after the eradication of the Covid-19 virus. We are well aware of it and are getting ready for it.

Concerning African heads of state, we are also asking them to fully take on their responsibilities in the face of this situation, starting by consulting on the concerns of their peoples and by developing genuine pan-African solidarity in managing the spread of the virus and the possible consequences that will follow.

We are calling on them mainly to conduct a rigorous evaluation of the evolution of the virus on the African continent, and to develop a common strategy to contain and treat confirmed cases with appropriate clinical methods and solutions, while trusting in the long experience of our local specialists in the management of infectious diseases.

We are also calling on them to develop a continental resilience strategy to minimize the consequences of the pandemic and of the global economic recession on African economies. This strategy will have to build on mechanisms already in place, such as NEPAD and the mobilization of regional economic communities (RECs) in the implementation of emergency programs prepared for this purpose.

Finally, we are inviting them to regard this collective resilience effort as a new opportunity to rebuild relations between Africa and the rest of the world, and to favor endogenous approaches to managing the contemporary challenges of the continent. This should be supported by a more rewarding communication on scientific, societal expertise, and on knowledge and know-how acquired during the response processes concerning COVID 19.

The African private sector and other external partners are also being invited to effectively support the actions of States in financial, logistical and technical terms, according to their area of expertise.

Faced with the unprecedented ineffectiveness of the international community in its mission to help Africa get out of chronic poverty, unjustified and illegal debt; to deal with the persistence of serious endemic diseases, which are much more devastating than Covid-19, like malaria, malnutrition, AIDS, etc., the time has come for Africa to consider alternative and sovereign solutions, making better use of its innumerable natural and human resources to meet the challenges of our time. The borders are closed, leaving us in possession of our greatest resource: the youth of our population! To strengthen bonds of solidarity and friendships between African States, but also with those nations that share this decisive and irreversible drive to matter differently and freely on the world stage, will be our paramount aim.

As far as the peoples of Africa are concerned, we are asking them to look out and stand up; to act as the front line soldiers in this global war against Covid-19. Our main weapon remains the systematic application of preventive measures, and compliance with the drastic measures taken by our States to stop the spread of the virus on the continent. Let us not be distracted! Let us remain united more closely than ever. It’s now or never!

Lisez cette déclaration en français

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Higherlife Foundation or the Econet Family Foundations.