About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso

doi:doi:10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso

Published in Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 7, Issue 6)

Received: 11 August 2021 Accepted: 7 September 2021 Published: 24 November 2021

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Abstract

In this work, we took on the task of addressing the issue of the pandemic in Africa and in Angola in particular. To do this, we used bibliographic research and participant observation. In it, we begin by going through the history of the West's relations with Africa, which we characterize as perverse, in order to deal with the proposal arising from the first that the second should become a testing ground for COVID-19 and the catastrophic predictions about the pandemic in the second context. Then, we address some of the recent studies on the subject that had Africa as their object, to demonstrate that, contrary to catastrophic predictions, Africa has not been punished by COVID-19 which has manifested itself in a mild way, compared to other continents. And if, initially, African leaders treated the pandemic based on externally oriented global solutions, they gradually began to take decisions autonomously according to their own reality and based on internal resources and knowledge. We conclude by stating that one of the interim lessons that the pandemic made possible for Africa was the demonstration that there are no global solutions to local problems and that it is necessary for Africa to respond to its problems with its own resources and not with formulas that have proven effective in other contexts but which in Africa may not serve. Another temporary lesson is that the effective process of liberating Africa and Africans still depends on being able, in this context, to despise the narrative of the West when it takes them as objects, as this tends to place it and Africans in a position of less value which coincides neither with the being of Africa nor with the being of Africans.

Published in	Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 7, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12
Page(s)	257-260
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Pandemic, Africa, Western, Decolonial Perspective

References

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[3]	Costa, Jurandir Freire (1983) - “Preface” in Souza, Neusa. Santos.- Becoming black: the vicissitudes of the identity of the Brazilian black on the rise, RJ: Graal Edition.
[4]	Crusmerino, Paulo Mvengou, Dahe, Cláudia. Helena, Dessarte, Nathalie Anne-Marie (2021) - Africa's “abnormal resistance” to the COVID-19 virus: outline of an analysis of the coloniality of power over life in Africa, in Magazine X, v. 16, n. 1.
[5]	Fanon, Frantz (2002) - Les damnés de la terre, Paris: La discovery.
[6]	Guimarães, Sérgio Alfredo (1999) - Racism and Anti-Racism in Brazil- S. P: Publishing company 34.
[7]	Kilomba, Grada (2019) The mask: colonialism, memory, trauma and decolonization. In: in Kilomba, G. Plantation memories: episodes of everyday racism. Translation by Jessica Oliveira de Jesus. Rio de Janeiro: Publishing company Cobogó.
[8]	Martins, Helder F. B., Hansine, Rogers (2020) - Epidemiological and demographic analysis of COVID-19 in Africa, in Pandemics, epidemics and humanitarian crises: protection of human resources in health, Lisbon, Proceedings of the Institute of Hygiene of Tropical Medicine of New University of Lisbon.
[9]	Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1974) - German ideology: Feuerbach - Critique of the newest German philosophy in the persons of its representatives FeuerbachI B. Bauer and Stirner and of German socialism in those of its different prophet (fifth reprint). Montivideo: United Nations Editions, Barcelona: Ediciones Grijalbo, S. A.
[10]	Mbembe, Achile. (2008) Necropolitics. Biopower, sovereignty, state of exception, politics of death. São Paulo: Editions N-1.
[11]	Monie, Frédéric (2020) «To sub-Saarian Africa due to the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic: spatial diffusion, impacts and challenges», Space and Economy [Online], 18 \| 2020, online post no on April 22, 2020, consulted on August 07, 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/espacoeconomia/13629; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/espacoeconomia.13629.
[12]	Munanga, Kabengele (1983) - African Anthropology: myth or reality?. Magazine of Antropology, 26, 151-160. https://doi.org/10.11606/2179-0892.ra.111048.
[13]	Rodrigues, Aroldo., Assmar, Eveline Maria Leal., Jablonsky Bernardo (2003). Social Psychology, (22nd ed.). Petrópolis, RJ. Voices.
[14]	Souza, Neusa. Santos.- Becoming black: the vicissitudes of the identity of the Brazilian black on the rise, RJ: Graal Edition.
[15]	Quince Duncan and John H. Manzari, Afro-Hispanic Review Vol. 23, No. 2 (FALL 2004), pp. 87-90 (4 pages) Published By: William Luis.

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APA Style

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso. (2021). About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa. Central African Journal of Public Health, 7(6), 257-260. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso. About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2021, 7(6), 257-260. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso. About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa. Cent Afr J Public Health. 2021;7(6):257-260. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12,
  author = {Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso},
  title = {About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa},
  journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health},
  volume = {7},
  number = {6},
  pages = {257-260},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20210706.12},
  abstract = {In this work, we took on the task of addressing the issue of the pandemic in Africa and in Angola in particular. To do this, we used bibliographic research and participant observation. In it, we begin by going through the history of the West's relations with Africa, which we characterize as perverse, in order to deal with the proposal arising from the first that the second should become a testing ground for COVID-19 and the catastrophic predictions about the pandemic in the second context. Then, we address some of the recent studies on the subject that had Africa as their object, to demonstrate that, contrary to catastrophic predictions, Africa has not been punished by COVID-19 which has manifested itself in a mild way, compared to other continents. And if, initially, African leaders treated the pandemic based on externally oriented global solutions, they gradually began to take decisions autonomously according to their own reality and based on internal resources and knowledge. We conclude by stating that one of the interim lessons that the pandemic made possible for Africa was the demonstration that there are no global solutions to local problems and that it is necessary for Africa to respond to its problems with its own resources and not with formulas that have proven effective in other contexts but which in Africa may not serve. Another temporary lesson is that the effective process of liberating Africa and Africans still depends on being able, in this context, to despise the narrative of the West when it takes them as objects, as this tends to place it and Africans in a position of less value which coincides neither with the being of Africa nor with the being of Africans.},
 year = {2021}
}

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T1  - About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa
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Y1  - 2021/11/24
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AB  - In this work, we took on the task of addressing the issue of the pandemic in Africa and in Angola in particular. To do this, we used bibliographic research and participant observation. In it, we begin by going through the history of the West's relations with Africa, which we characterize as perverse, in order to deal with the proposal arising from the first that the second should become a testing ground for COVID-19 and the catastrophic predictions about the pandemic in the second context. Then, we address some of the recent studies on the subject that had Africa as their object, to demonstrate that, contrary to catastrophic predictions, Africa has not been punished by COVID-19 which has manifested itself in a mild way, compared to other continents. And if, initially, African leaders treated the pandemic based on externally oriented global solutions, they gradually began to take decisions autonomously according to their own reality and based on internal resources and knowledge. We conclude by stating that one of the interim lessons that the pandemic made possible for Africa was the demonstration that there are no global solutions to local problems and that it is necessary for Africa to respond to its problems with its own resources and not with formulas that have proven effective in other contexts but which in Africa may not serve. Another temporary lesson is that the effective process of liberating Africa and Africans still depends on being able, in this context, to despise the narrative of the West when it takes them as objects, as this tends to place it and Africans in a position of less value which coincides neither with the being of Africa nor with the being of Africans.
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Author Information

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso

Interdisciplinary Centre for Studies and Research, Faculty of Human Sciences, Catholic University of Angola, Luanda, Angola

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APA Style

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso. (2021). About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa. Central African Journal of Public Health, 7(6), 257-260. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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ACS Style

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso. About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2021, 7(6), 257-260. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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AMA Style

Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso. About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa. Cent Afr J Public Health. 2021;7(6):257-260. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12

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@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12,
  author = {Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso},
  title = {About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa},
  journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health},
  volume = {7},
  number = {6},
  pages = {257-260},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20210706.12},
  abstract = {In this work, we took on the task of addressing the issue of the pandemic in Africa and in Angola in particular. To do this, we used bibliographic research and participant observation. In it, we begin by going through the history of the West's relations with Africa, which we characterize as perverse, in order to deal with the proposal arising from the first that the second should become a testing ground for COVID-19 and the catastrophic predictions about the pandemic in the second context. Then, we address some of the recent studies on the subject that had Africa as their object, to demonstrate that, contrary to catastrophic predictions, Africa has not been punished by COVID-19 which has manifested itself in a mild way, compared to other continents. And if, initially, African leaders treated the pandemic based on externally oriented global solutions, they gradually began to take decisions autonomously according to their own reality and based on internal resources and knowledge. We conclude by stating that one of the interim lessons that the pandemic made possible for Africa was the demonstration that there are no global solutions to local problems and that it is necessary for Africa to respond to its problems with its own resources and not with formulas that have proven effective in other contexts but which in Africa may not serve. Another temporary lesson is that the effective process of liberating Africa and Africans still depends on being able, in this context, to despise the narrative of the West when it takes them as objects, as this tends to place it and Africans in a position of less value which coincides neither with the being of Africa nor with the being of Africans.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - About the Catastrophic Forecasts, Coming from the West, About the Behavior of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa
AU  - Helena Cosma da Graca Fonseca Veloso
Y1  - 2021/11/24
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12
T2  - Central African Journal of Public Health
JF  - Central African Journal of Public Health
JO  - Central African Journal of Public Health
SP  - 257
EP  - 260
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-5781
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20210706.12
AB  - In this work, we took on the task of addressing the issue of the pandemic in Africa and in Angola in particular. To do this, we used bibliographic research and participant observation. In it, we begin by going through the history of the West's relations with Africa, which we characterize as perverse, in order to deal with the proposal arising from the first that the second should become a testing ground for COVID-19 and the catastrophic predictions about the pandemic in the second context. Then, we address some of the recent studies on the subject that had Africa as their object, to demonstrate that, contrary to catastrophic predictions, Africa has not been punished by COVID-19 which has manifested itself in a mild way, compared to other continents. And if, initially, African leaders treated the pandemic based on externally oriented global solutions, they gradually began to take decisions autonomously according to their own reality and based on internal resources and knowledge. We conclude by stating that one of the interim lessons that the pandemic made possible for Africa was the demonstration that there are no global solutions to local problems and that it is necessary for Africa to respond to its problems with its own resources and not with formulas that have proven effective in other contexts but which in Africa may not serve. Another temporary lesson is that the effective process of liberating Africa and Africans still depends on being able, in this context, to despise the narrative of the West when it takes them as objects, as this tends to place it and Africans in a position of less value which coincides neither with the being of Africa nor with the being of Africans.
VL  - 7
IS  - 6
ER  -

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