Covid-19 in Africa: Societal and Economic Implications

Written amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this edited volume draws on the expertise of social scientists and humanities scholars to understand the several ramifications of Covid-19 in societies, politics, and the economies of Africa. The contributors examine measures, communicative practices, and experiences that have guided the (inter)action of governments, societies and citizens in this unpredictable moment. Covid-19 tested governments’ disaster preparedness as well as exposed governments’ attitudes towards the poor and vulnerable. In the same vein, it also tested the agency of the generality of the African populace in the face of containment measures and how these impacted on everyday social, cultural and economic practices of the ordinary peoples. In this vein, our concern is to understand the relationship between growing vulnerability on the one hand and ingenuity of agency on the other, and how both were embodied, narrated and discoursed by the African poor, university students, religious entities, and middle-classes, and those that bore the major brunt of the lockdowns.

The volume is thus a useful resource for scholars of Africa, policy makers and those who want to understand Covid-19 in Africa. It provides a multiplicity of perspectives of the pandemic and African responses at different levels of society, economy and the political spectrum. The continental focus of this volume gives room for broader comparative analyses. Lastly, this interdisciplinary work benefits from the input of medical historians, anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, political scientists, literature scholars, urban planners, geographers and others.

Susan Arndt is Professor of Literature at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She has published widely on intertextuality, intersectionality, and critical race studies, focussing on British and Anglophone African literatures.

Banhoro Yacouba is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso. He has published on medical histories of Africa. He is the Director of the Joseph Ki-Zerbo’s African Cluster Centre, which is part of African Multiple.

Taibat Lawanson is Professor of Urban Planning and Co-Director of the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She researches on social complexities, urban realities and spatial justice.

Enocent Msindo is Dean of Humanities at Rhodes University, South Africa. He is a social and political historian with publications on ethnicity and nationalism, information policy, medical history, and others.

Peter Simatei is Professor of Comparative Literature at Moi University, Kenya. He publishes in the fields of postcolonial studies, Anglophone literature, and Diaspora studies.