Global Covid-19 politics appear to have awakened Africa’s liberation spirit: the continent’s leaders and citizens are united in their censure of the West’s response to the Omicron strain as an “African variant”.
African leaders have used strong terms – “travel apartheid”, “unscientific”, “discriminatory” and “unjust” among them – to condemn travel bans instituted by some developed countries after the strain was identified and flagged by South African scientists on 24 November 2021.
What particularly incensed African countries was that blanket bans came at a time when Covid numbers were far higher in parts of Europe than in any African country. In early December, the UK was registering more than 50 000 new cases a day, while the figure was 6400 in South Africa, only 19 in Botswana and a paltry 16 in Malawi.
The fast-spreading variant emerged quickly around the world but, despite it being detected in more than 40 countries (among them the US, the UK, and swathes of both Asia and Europe) in the days after South Africa’s announcement, only travel to and from the African continent was restricted.
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, summarised many people’s complaints when he tweeted on December 6: “Now that omicron has been found in many non-African and developed countries, why are travels from those countries not banned? Why single out African countries? Singling out African countries is very unfair, non-scientific and discriminatory. Lift bans on African countries!”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa slammed the travel restrictions on his and other African countries as “unscientific and discriminatory”. He also suggested that South Africa was being punished for discovering the variant.
“We in the South have proven that we’ve got the scientific capability to identify a very threatening variant of Covid-19. It is out of our transparency and our responsibility to the world to demonstrate that we’ve found this variant, and we least expected to be punished by the various countries for what we have disclosed very transparently,” said Ramaphosa.
Speaking to Afrasid, leading South African analyst and academic Professor Somadoda Fikeni echoed Ramaphosa’s sentiments, saying South Africa and its scientists deserved praise, not censure, for having swiftly alerted the world about the Omicron variant.
“South African scientists have done excellent work in discovering this variant early and alerting the world to it,” Fikeni said. “Remember, China was heavily criticised for being perceived as slow in telling the world about this disease.”
“I view (travel bans and related censure) as unjust and a mirror of the West’s prejudice to have reacted in that manner to a global pandemic,” he said.
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, in a televised national address, pointed out that travel bans defeated the spirit of multilateral cooperation needed for dealing with the pandemic.
“The decision to ban our citizens from travelling to certain countries was hastily made and is not only unfair but is also unjustified. While remaining confident that reason and logic will prevail, the harshness of the decision has the effect of shaking our belief in the sincerity of declared friendship and commitment of equality and economic prosperity for us,” Masisi said.
It wasn’t just African leaders who questioned the wisdom and logic of travel bans. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “What's unacceptable is to have one part of the world — one of the most vulnerable parts of the world economy — condemned to a lockout when they were the ones that revealed the existence of a new variant that, by the way, already existed in other parts of the world, including in Europe, as we know.”
He acknowledged that the disease was highly transmissible but pointed out that border closures would not magically keep it at bay: “We have the instruments to have safe travel. Let's use those instruments to avoid this kind of, allow me to say — travel apartheid — which I think is unacceptable.”
The World Health Organisation’s Director, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, was another powerful voice against travel bans and took aim at how some European media organisations reported on the variant.
In a tweet after a Spanish newspaper published a racist cartoon about African people bringing the variant to the rest of the world, Ghebreyesus said: “It pains me that shows of racism like this still plague the challenges facing the world today. Caricaturing people crammed in a boat bringing a virus to Europe is disgusting. We can only advance, as one community, by promoting solidarity, not stigma.”
South African analyst Fikeni suggested to Afrasid that the prejudiced reaction of many countries towards Africa should not be viewed entirely negatively.
“It is a wake-up call,” he said.
“There are many African leaders that lived under the illusion that the solution to African problems lay in the West. I am glad this disease has shown that Africans should look for answers to their problems within themselves. Firstly, Africa was side-lined when it came to vaccine distribution and now their economies have suffered from being painted as the face of the omicron virus.”
And he is adamant that Africa’s scientists should continue to behave openly and honestly.
“There are already positive responses to Africa reporting omicron early. Transparency should always lead because early warnings help countries to mitigate the devastation of the disease.”
“I know there are some, especially those in the tourism sector, that believe African scientists should in the future keep information about new diseases they discover secret. This is near impossible because our scientists are in the labs with Europeans working together. I think African countries will continue to share information about the disease with the world. It is the right thing to do.”
About the author
Phathisani Moyo is a research fellow at Africa Asia Dialogues (Afrasid). He is a communication strategist at International Trade Centre (ITC). He has worked for a number of media organisations and has served at various levels including as the news editor for The Star newspaper in South Africa. He holds a Honours degree in political science and administration from the University of Zimbabwe.