Containing the spread and impact of Covid-19 is a herculean task for Africa
and African governments. It is even more challenging when western countries
and their allies deliberately conspire to allow politics and economic
nationalism instead of science to define global response to a virus that we
know little about. Its origin,transmission and severity are still matters of
contention among experts. From the day South African medical scientists
raised the alarm about discovering the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the
western world came out in full force to display its racist diplomacy against
Africa. Critical thinking and scientific inquiry were jettisoned, and the new
variant was inappropriately dubbed the “African Covid-19”.
Politics indeed plays a role in health affairs, but it should not define global
response to an epidemic requiring an evidence-based response. Viruses do
not know colour, creed, nationality, or race. As evidenced with the COVID 19,
humans across all strata and genealogy are exposed to this deadly disease.
Singling out a group to target and discriminate against is a folly taken too far.
On November 26, the World Health Organisation (WHO) labelled Omicron a
“variant of concern”, the fifth version (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta having
come before it) of the virus to be thus marked out. Omicron has generated
quite a stir globally in the past few weeks and has put Africa and Nigeria in the
middle of it all. There were earlier predictions that the covid virus would
continue to mutate, and so this did not come to public health experts as a
surprise. What may have caused the uproar is the West’s response to this
new variant.
Immediately South Africa announced this new variant, the West flinched back
to protectionist and nationalistic mode, and Africa became a target of
opprobrium and discrimination. The narrative and actions of affluent western
countries immediately toed Africa’s dominant historical ‘narrative’ as a
dangerous place with exotic diseases that will threaten other parts of the
world. Usually, one will assume that the global community should praise South
Africa for its openness and scientists for working hard to identify this new
variant. But that was not the case. Fuelled by self-destructive nationalism, the
West was in a hurry to shut down the world on South Africa and other
southern African countries, and later even countries in west Africa, including
Nigeria.
Reacting to this, WHO Executive Director posits, “It’s really important that
there are no knee jerk responses here, especially with relation to South Africa.
South Africa is picking up interesting and important information for which we
are doing the proper risk assessment and risk management. We have seen in
the past that when there is any mention of a variant then everyone is closing
borders and restricting travel. It is really important that we remain open and
focused on characterizing the problem, not punishing countries for doing
outstanding scientific work and being open and transparent about what they
are seeing and what they are finding”.
Furthermore, CBS News reported that Dutch health authorities announced last
Tuesday that they found the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in cases
dating back 11 days, indicating that it was already spreading in western
Europe before the first cases in southern Africa were identified. The RIVM
health institute found Omicron in samples dating from November 19 and 23.
Also, in many European, North American, and Asian countries, Omicron was
seen in numbers sizeable enough to be of concern, but the reaction that
followed did not target these countries but only African countries.
The statements so far from the West have all the trappings of intellectual and
scientific incoherence. Once Africa is involved, the West suspends logical
reasoning backed by scientific evidence and wears the cap of self-
protectionism, discrimination, and fearmongering to paint Africa in a bad light.
The West acts as if when a variant is linked to a place it was detected first, it
must create many stigmas, and they (a healthy privileged population) have the
right to blame someone. It’s imperative to highlight that when a new variant is
detected in a specific place, it doesn’t mean it originated there; it may simply
imply that professionals in the health area did a good job and noticed it before
anybody else.
Besides, that a variant starts in one place does not mean that the variant will
become very established in another area to warrant
the knee jerk reaction that followed omicron announcement. There is a
precedent for this. Southern Africa suffered a wave of the Beta variant at the
end of 2020, but it never became established elsewhere. Alpha swept across
Europe but never became based in southern Africa. A variant spread in one
place and not another as much, maybe more evolutionary, and environmental.
For Covid 19, a crucial part of the environment is the immune system, which is
person specific.
This knee jerk response of clamping down on some countries where Omicron
is found (many countries outside of Africa where scientists found it had not
received the same level of punishment or ostracisation that African countries
did) and shutting down flights from these countries are only justified because
of the idea of stopping or delaying Omicron from reaching these countries.
The pertinent question at this point is, why is Africa targeted? Why are
Africans enraged about the barrage of bans from the West? We must note
with great emphasis that in 2020 when covid 19 left Wuhan, it first infected
many people in the US and Europe before it reached Africa. However, African
countries did not discriminate against those western countries, nor did they
ban flights from them in a knee jerk reaction as these countries are doing now.
Africans
saw thousandsof people infected in the West that died from covid 19. But they
did not discriminate or target the West for ridicule. Why is the West doing this
to Africa now? This is only an extension of the dialogue of the imbalance
between Africa and the West. Unfortunately, what ought to be a scientific
debate has been overwhelmed by racist diplomacy and economic
nationalism.
The irrational reaction of the West in this issue of Omicron is tangentially
related to how they have handled the vaccination in poorer countries. They
are yet to show real commitment to the vaccination in Africa and other
developing countries generally. This has resulted in a threatening disparity.
This wide gap between vaccination rates in the West put at 70 per cent of
the population against the less than 7per cent for Africa is a reason for
unbridled protectionism. Part of the protectionist policies was shutting out
Africa from the rest of the world, starting from air travel. Some countries
banned flights from Southern Africa from coming to Europe, and other African
countries were added later. The case of Nigeria with its negligible number of
omicron cases makes no sense.
Canada was the first country to ban Nigerian flights despite the fact that there
are no direct flights between the two countries. Nigerians are, however, more
incensed with the British government putting Nigeria on the red list. But,
before the British government put Nigeria on the red list, there were more
cases of Omicron in the UK than in Nigeria, and there are even more cases in
many European countries, but the UK did not put those countries on the red
list. One will imagine given this approach that had the first Covid 19 virus, the
first identified in China last year originated in Africa; it is now clear that ‘the
world would have locked Africa away and thrown away the key’. There would
have been no urgency to develop vaccines because Africa would have been
expendable. This virus is already on three continents, and nobody is locking
away Belgium,Denmark or Isreal . Why is the West locking away Africa?
The implications of this locking of Africa are enormous. They are
psychological – the emotional impact of Africans feeling discriminated against
- and economic and social consequences. The loss
in productivity and revenue to businesses in the aviation and allied industries
in Nigeria within the period of the ban will affect the economy in the long run.
Given the timing of this ban, many Nigerian families abroad that have planned
to travel back to Nigeria to celebrate charismas with their families may have to
call off the travel plan.
Perhaps, if the government had been challenging this hatred as it did with the
case of the UAE, Nigeria may get more respect. Nothing stops developing
countries from engaging with the West more challengingly if they act
condescendingly towards them. There is a need for mutual respect from all
countries and continents devoid of patriarchal sentiments and tendencies
bordering towards ideological apartheid and unnecessary supremacy
inclinations.
Omicron appears to be a politically divisive variant of the Covid-19 virus. The
common lies about the Omicron variant targeted at Africa are not backed by
scientific evidence. Instead, they reify existing ideology that often depicts
Africa badly. Western countries’ fear of doom coming from Africa fuels their
overaction. Europe and its powerful allies are acting as if they are the exact
representations of overbearing patriarchy – they rape, exploit, and use Africa
as a resource base whilst condemning it as a hell on earth.
The Covid crisis is not about to end. There may be other mutations with even
stranger names. One thing is clear: the gains of globalization may be eroded
by the history of this virus. Both the West and Africa stand to lose. China’s
interests will advance as it keeps dealing with the virus as a scientific and
economic challenge with hidden benefits. Africa must rise and seek
collaboration and cooperation instead of looking up to the West for salvation.
This discriminatory treatment of Africa should spur a renewed sense of Pan-
Africanism and bring all African countries together to work for their collective
good. Reliance on the West to solve Africa’s problems reifies Africa’s
perception as a problem continent and the concomitant fear that goes with
those negative sentiments about Africa that persists in the West. Africa has
allowed the West to tell its story for too long, and it is time Africa takes back
control of its narrative and engage with the world on better terms. Sometimes,
it is difficult to blame the West for their knee jerk reactions to African issues. It
comes from their existing perceptions of Africa as a corrupt haven, where
poverty and disease are ravaging the continent that cannot help
itself. Although this perception is not entirely accurate, Africa still engages
from weak and needy positions with the world.
I implore western countries that have placed restrictions on travel to and from
Africa to change that policy immediately. The UK should revert to the status
quo and allow Nigerians and British citizens to travel to the UK and Vice
versa, especially during this Christmas festivities. The stress and cost of
quarantining citizens who probably are Omicron variant Covid 19 free just
because of unscientific sentiments are unwarranted. If the West insists on this
path, a retaliatory action may be inevitable and the next time African countries
identify a variant of the Covid 19, they know exactly what not to do.
