How African countries can overcome the coronavirus through an Afrocentric perspective

This blog post will discuss how African countries can overcome the coronavirus (COVID-19) which has caused a number of problems, including socio-economical issues, throughout the world as many countries grapple with finding solutions to approach this pandemic which has infected millions around the world and has killed hundreds of thousands.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined this newly discovered coronavirus as an infectious disease in which most people infected with this virus experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring specific treatment. Older people and those with underlying health problems are more at risk and various preventive measures have been encouraged, including washing hands and not touching your face. At present there are no specific treatments or vaccines but a number clinical trials are underway for potential treatments.

In this blog post an Afrocentric perspective has been identified as the best way the African continent can tackle this pandemic. Hence, this blog post seeks to bring into the forefront a theory/perspective that has not been given enough space to be expressed and how it aims to assist African states to overcome the effects caused by this pandemic.

What is Afrocentrism?

The term 'Afrocentrism' consists of multiple interpretations but for the purposes of this blog post I will define it as a non-western International Relations theory/perspective as a lens that takes into consideration the historical and political context of Africa by Africans, as opposed to looking at the continent only from a Eurocentric narrative or perspective. I want to make it clear that this is not an anti-western think piece but rather one that introduces new perspectives to the discipline of International Relations (IR). Hence, to sum up this perspective, it is advocating for 'African Solutions to African problems', a term coined by Ghanaian political economist George Ayittey in 1994.

 'African solutions for African problems'

The African continent has for long been influenced by external forces in dealing with its huge myriad of problems, most notably the 2011 Libyan Civil War which resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) taking a leading role as opposed to the more appropriate African Union (AU) since this was the continental bloc Libya was a member of and could have provided more lasting solutions as the continental body would have been more understanding of Libya's context. In the same manner this is how the continent should tackle the coronavirus by tailoring covid-19 research to its realities as the continent can apply its own lessons it has learned from battling epidemics such as Ebola and HIV, as well as from countries where covid-19 outbreaks may be peaking or have already peaked.

According the late South African sociologist Archie Mafeje there is a need for Africans to be "rooted" in Africa, just as Max Weber was "rooted" in Europe and this is an indigenous African concept known as Endogeneity. Endogeny refers to an intellectual standpoint derived from a rootedness in African conditions and this concept should become the cornerstone and lens through which the continent can effectively approach the coronavirus pandemic. Hence, it is imperative that more African medical researchers should be involved in research in finding a cure and coming up with effective treatments as they are “rooted” in Africa, as noted by The Guardian, not least because regulatory authorities in Africa will require local data on Covid-19 patients to register any new drug. Local researchers are also more likely to maintain the trust of the population and this is largely due to the continent been victim to 'medical discrimination' at the hands of European countries in the past and from large pharmaceutical companies.

The recent racist statements by two French doctors on live TV that vaccine trials should be tested on poor Africans was totally unacceptable and received widespread condemnation including from popular retired footballer Didier Drogba and the Director General of the WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who mentioned that "Africa can't and won't be a testing ground for any vaccine". Hence the need yet again for Africa to be treated as an equal partner on the global stage and to be treated fairly and given a platform to also allow its own medical researchers to come up with potential treatments and cures for covid-19 rather than only giving this mandate to the global north which is extremely unfair. The inclusion of African medical researchers could perhaps increase the chances of finding an effective treatment and even a cure at a faster rate as humanity is depended on it as more people worldwide will die should this process take a long time as many experts in the field have claimed, such as American physician and immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci who mentions that a vaccine could only be available in 12 to 18 months.

Are there specific treatments on the continent?

At present the answer is no. However, in Madagascar the government has proposed a herbal tonic called Covid-Organics as it has claimed it 'has been a success' in curbing the countries coronavirus rates as it has experienced no deaths to date. However, the WHO has cautioned people against using untested remedies such as Covid-Organics which appears not to be in line with WHO guidelines on clinical trials. Although it has been well noted that Senegal has been developing cost-effective test kits for covid-19 through its AIDS and Ebola experience which will cost just US$1 which will make it the cheapest globally and this will indeed be a game changer globally as it will not only be able to successfully increase the scale of testing, but it will give empirical evidence that Africa indeed has what it takes to come up with medical solutions just as successfully as western nations. 

The African Union (AU) is in discussions with Madagascar to obtain technical data regarding the safety and efficiency of the Covid-Organics herbal remedy which has gained media attention throughout Africa and will review the scientific data gathered through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and base it on global technical and ethical norms. The WHO has stated that it welcomes traditional remedies such as Covid-Organics so long as they are tested as "Africans deserve to use medicines tested to the same standards as people in the rest of the world".