COVID-19 in Africa: A new world revelation

By Evelyn Dan Epelle

WASHINTON– Predicting coronavirus apocalypse in Africa was an easy one. A continent with nations largely defined by the ‘under-developed and ‘developing’ construct, and remains the epicenter of ‘foreign aid’ with debt-stricken GDP indexes, cannot be expected to weather any storm better than her helpers.

Billionaire Philanthropist, Melinda Gates in an interview with CNN on April 10 claimed that she ‘foresees bodies lying around in the street of African countries’ while boldly predicting the fate of Africa when COVID-19 twirls into the continent. A few weeks later, this foresight materialized in her home country, the United States of America which became the worst-hit nation on the planet – surpassing China, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and France which were all successively epicenters of the virus at a time.

In New York City, dozens of bodies were found in trucks when funeral homes became overwhelmed in what was a swift escalation of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

What Africa’s saviors are learning now is that, by ignoring the continent’s epidemiological expertise, and her coping mechanisms built upon long decades of enduring extreme hardships, poverty, and enforced subservience, the developed nations of the world have perhaps skipped an important masterclass on resilience. Africa knows better and did better because prevention is largely better than cure.

Admitting to shortcomings and failure has also been typified on the continent. According to western construct, Africa barely passes the litmus test for anything positive. But knowing that Africa lacks the capacity and infrastructure to bear the burden of a health crisis of this kind, proved positive over grandstanding as the world’s best, yet flopping on the main experiment of basic crisis management.

Some of the uninformed assumptions about Africa’s threshold were also detrimental and consequent to the adoption of copy-paste crisis response strategies from her headmasters in the early stages. It is true that the continent did not escape entirely from the virus, and that COVID-19 indeed made a grand entry into the continent, causing extensive damage and backtracking progress. However, Africa inherited a huge dose of fear that has turned out to be unwarranted, misguided, and a reflection of the shortcomings of the developed world than personal failures.

A more accurate prediction about Africa can be drawn from the welcome remarks of Joel Hellman, dean and distinguished professor at Georgetown School of Foreign Service, who, speaking at the 2020 Georgetown Africa Business Conference, posited; “We are on the verge of an incredibly exciting century in which Africa will be critical in terms of shaping the trends”. Ironically, the conference questioned strategies aimed at ‘rebuilding countries from conflict and putting them on the path of stability and growth. Former Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Tony Blair, while opining for Project Syndicate also noted that ‘over the next 30 years, Sub-Saharan Africa’s population will double to over 2 billion, and its economies will industrialize’.

These data-backed revelations succinctly capture a new world reality where the led will rise to leadership, and Africa has proven itself ready for the incoming challenge.

What might the world now learn from Africa?

The pandemic exacerbated hardships for low-income countries in Africa. This is due to the fact that existing challenges like poverty, hunger, inadequate social infrastructure, and terrorism placed the poorest of the poor at a disadvantage, long before COVID-19 arrived. The continent has also had a head start in dealing with emerging and re-emerging epidemics including Cholera, Ebola, Monkey Pox, Lassa Fever, and other infectious diseases.

From early speculations about hot temperatures in the region that kill off COVID-19 particles in the air to other conspiracy theories on social media about Africa’s perceived immunity, Africans now appear mysteriously resistant to the virus. More accurate is statistics that show how COVID-19 affects all race, social class, or geographical position. The virus has long spread to all 54 countries in Africa, starting from Egypt in February to Lesotho in the second week of May.

Africa’s response to the pandemic, while remarkable, is impeded by the significant disparity in available resources to combat a crisis of this magnitude when compared to the Western nations. The African Development Bank (AfDB) shared that ‘the global community must mobilize approximately US$100 billion for Africa – if the continent is to respond adequately to health and budget support needs arising from the impact of the pandemic’.

Several emergency response packages have emerged, like support and relief materials from China where the virus originated, and other relief packages from global bodies including the European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), G-20, Africa Development Bank, World Bank, amongst others.

Hiccups on the path to recovery stem from Africa’s longstanding dependence on foreign aid, and a debt history that puts all aid and COVID-19 relief funding at equidistant points from the materializing realities of their expected impact.

African governments must seek regional integration strategies away from reliance on ‘western assistance’ while channeling energies into job creation for their growing youth population. The future of Africa-World engagement is clearly Trade. Aid is reversing, as more nations internalize and compete for scarce resources to weather the effects of the global pandemic.

There is still a lot that needs to be done with respect to funding, public engagement, technical support, and research out of Africa. All efforts aimed at boosting Import-Export activities, Agriculture, Innovation, Healthcare, and Security systems in Africa are now dependent on financial and human resource availability. These sectors should also be prioritized in Africa’s policy draft for a more equitable and sustainable post-COVID era.

A silver lining to the existing ideological and philosophical conflict is the growing conversations on the subject. Multilateral and other global gatherings will allow for more inclusive, thought-provoking conversations as technology is providing virtual access across previously unreachable borders.

Hopefully, Africa will be centralized and prioritized in these conversations. It is aptly advised that losing old notions about Africa in third-world genetic makeup and tuning to the frequencies of limitless possibilities for her growth, advancement, and development is wise.

This too requires very little clairvoyance.