On colonialism, coloniality and coronavirus narratives in Africa
1.16 | July 4, 2020 | Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona
IMAGE: Annie Spratt | Sierra Leone
By now we are all living in the time of the virus, and we could well classify or differentiate our time between pre-corona and post-corona epochs (yes, sounds like a new beginning, doesn’t it?). While it was earlier fashionable to call the coronavirus the “great equaliser” — or even express cliched epithets like “we are in this together” that are meant to be well-meaning, and yet naïve — we now know how the virus can differentiate between categories of race, class or caste. Yes, race matters, but the virus isn’t entirely responsible for producing these classes of people. There are historical antecedents to these formations. But why would be need to understand these pasts? First of all, being naïve can make us socially irresponsible. What follows from this is that, in this very moment, we are responsible for shaping the future.
In Explaining Epidemics, the historian of medicine Charles Rosenberg viewed an epidemic as a social phenomenon that has a dramaturgic form in the manner it plays out in society. As though reenacting Albert Camus’ La Peste, he unravels an epidemic in three acts — progressive revelation; managing randomness; negotiating public response — before it gradually subsides.
Epidemics start at a moment in time, proceed on a stage limited in space and duration, follow a plot line of increasing and revelatory tension, move to a crisis of individual and collective character, then drift toward closure.
Rosenberg further elaborates on the epidemic’s dramaturgic aspects wherein
[it] takes on the quality of pageant by mobilizing communities to act out proprietory rituals that incorporate and reaffirm fundamental social values and modes of understanding.
In revealing our attitudes and responses an epidemic lays bare our social values. Some of our most celebrated responses have been our concern and solidarity towards each other. But we have also seen responses of xenophobia and utter selfishness towards each other. The danger lies in how such responses could get further reified in society. In this sense, the virus is a metaphor for who we really are as human beings, or as a society. These metaphors have histories that go back in time.
Among the more significant historical antecedent that has come to shape our responses to epidemics has been colonialism — a process by which a more powerful regional entity controls the territorial sovereignty of another (colonising it). The powerful entity does this by usually invading the other and then exerting its power and influence over these colonised peoples through its political, economic, and cultural spheres. While such processes have been witnessed during ancient and medieval periods, the term colonisation has mostly been used to refer to the European conquests of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania from the early modern period onwards. Whereas most of these regions had been decolonised by the mid-twentieth century, their afterlife was marked by a degree of “postcolonial ambivalence” as the now formerly-colonised peoples had to culturally locate themselves between their pasts and present.
This post-colonial situation is better understood through what the Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano characterised as the “coloniality of power.” While this concept was later broadened by Walter Mignolo and others,
In Quijano's seminal article the colonial matrix of power has been described in four interrelated domains: control of economy (land appropriation, exploitation of labor, control of natural resources); control of authority (institution, army); control of gender and sexuality (family, education) and control of subjectivity and knowledge (epistemology, education and formation of subjectivity).
This week’s readings explore the coloniality of power through the end-nineteenth century colonisation of Africa by European nations (see video in postscript) — popularly known as the Scramble for Africa — and its consequences to this day. Colonisation was often justified as a “civilising mission” that viewed European rule as superior and benevolent towards the colonised peoples. However, what resulted was severe economic exploitation of the region, as colonisation also imposed new territorial boundaries in the continent. After their decolonisation old colonial conflicts continued through authoritarian rulers or governments that were sometimes covertly supported by their former colonial rulers. Regional conflicts and economic uncertainties forced many Africans to migrate outside their territories. Giovanni Sale SJ analyses how Africa has today become a continent on the move as its citizens try to navigate the complexities of their displacement — more so, as Europe becomes less accepting of them.
Quijano's concept of “coloniality of power” becomes relevant in the post-colonial period as Africans continue to live with the political, economic and cultural effects of colonisation. A key aspect of this coloniality remains the “control of subjectivity and knowledge.” The political scientist Simukai Chigudu argues that even if African countries exhibit impressive ingenuity in dealing with the coronavirus, they have been burdened by the legacies of colonialism. Part of this colonial legacy is Western-imposed austerity — implemented through neoliberal economic adjustment programmes in the 1980s and early 1990s — that undermined spending on healthcare infrastructure. Part of these colonial legacy lies in how the West shapes African narratives on the coronavirus as a “ticking time bomb,” or being “woefully ill-equipped to deal with COVID-19.” According to Chigudu,
[Even] legitimate concerns about weak health systems (the product of decades of austerity), densely populated urban centers, and a history of devastating epidemics mingle with racist ideas about the primordial nature of African poverty and about the inability of African peoples and governments to respond with ingenuity to a crisis.
This, in spite of statistics speaking otherwise.
African countries (with the exception of South Africa) currently have fewer Covid-19 cases — with testing being tripled to 1.2 million. This resilience has been attributed to a number of factors that could include a younger population (with a median age of 19.4 years as compared with Europe (40 years) and the US (38 years)), warmer weather, prevalence of BCG vaccinations against tuberculosis, less dense populations, the effect of ultraviolet light and relatively more people spending time outdoors. Similarly, its economy might comparatively still prove to be more resilient to the shocks of a pandemic-induced slowdown.
Yet, coloniality could still alter the pandemic narrative in Africa.
Today, we might not be part of the colonial project. But to the extent we harbour those attitudes, we could risk becoming metaphors of a colonial past.
Wishing you faith, hope and love,
Rinald D’Souza SJ
HISTORIA DOMUS
Readings
FAITH
Africa: A continent on the move
Giovanni Sale SJ | La Civiltà Cattolica | 12 May 2020
DOI: 10.32009/22072446.0520.5
It is often said that Africa is “a continent on the move.” Before European colonization there were no real borders on the continent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, let alone “walls” or containing barriers, as unfortunately we know them everywhere today. There were, instead, empires whose geographical extent and borders varied, as well as acephalous societies, states without an established head or capital. The only truly fixed and determined political reality for the inhabitants was membership of a clan or a specific ethnic group.
This, however, does not mean that Africa is a continent without history...
This distorted idea of Africa as a “black hole” in the history of humanity derives from a racist mentality sometimes cloaked in science, which conceives European domination over the rest of the world as the result of the supposed superiority of white civilization over others.
The idea of the “civilizing” mission of the European colonial powers was born in this horizon, justifying colonialism, that is, the indiscriminate occupation of immense territories – which then, after decolonization, became nations – and the legitimacy, on the part of the occupants, of the exploitation of natural resources and populations.
HOPE
How Colonialism and Austerity Are Shaping Africa’s Response to the Coronavirus
Sa’eed Husaini with Simukai Chigudu | Jacobin | 30 May 2020
African countries have shown impressive ingenuity in dealing with the coronavirus. But the legacies of colonialism and Western-imposed austerity have left them ill-equipped to attack the deadly virus.
LOVE
Coronavirus: Kenyan boy who made hand-washing machine awarded
BBC | 2 June 2020
"I now have two machines and I want to make more," Stephen Wamukota said.
They allow users to tip a bucket of water using a foot pedal to avoid touching surfaces to reduce infections.
Stephen came up with the idea after learning on TV about ways to prevent catching the virus.
Postscript
Postscript
African advancement and the consequences of colonialism
Georja Calvin-Smith and Laura Di Biasio | F24 | 30 June 2020
While the murder of George Floyd in the United States has revived anti-racism movements around the world, it has also stirred up the painful history of colonialism. In this special edition, FRANCE 24 takes a look at the history behind the tumultuous relationship between Europe and Africa. Reports from South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon and DR Congo explore the complicated collective memory of former colonial powers and the nations they controlled.
REFLECT
For it is not so much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul,
but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, #2
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And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love. | 1 Cor 13:13
Yes, the old colonisers have gone...but the mindset remains in every babu....Like Paulo Freire said, the oppressed carry the oppressor in their head.....Well written dear Rinald...thanks and congratulations ....George
I liked the entire neo-colonial perspective to the effects and the response experienced by the battered continent. Closer to home however one can explore the entire caste narrative and how we as a country have responded to the pandemic.