COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa, “Copy-and-Paste” Policies, and the Biomedical Hegemony of “Cure”

Abstract

The whole world was virtually not prepared for COVID-19. The medical remedy was understandably unavailable. So, Europeans, Americans, and similar regions of the world fell back on their traditional approaches to disruptive events of the type that COVID-19 represents. Many African countries would be largely led to mechanically copy the template of these other regions to varying degrees irrespective of the often starkly different economic, political, and social milieus that confront them. This article examines the policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic by African political office holders and the politics of COVID-19 remedy in Africa as scenes for the enactment of cultural racism and biomedical imperialism. Relying on the theoretical frameworks of cultural racism and postcolonialism, the article interrogates what happened with Africa’s policy response and attempts to find a home-grown remedy to the global COVID-19 pandemic as reflections of the underlying patterns of relationalities that determine the behavior of those in leadership positions under normal times—a pattern that only appears in stark relief under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 and the Russian Regional Response

“…During the first phases of the pandemic, political leaders across the globe seemed markedly indecisive and devoid of clear strategies of action (Arukwe 2022). There was a general tendency for authoritarian regimes to react later and harder to the pandemic than more democratic ones (Nelson 2021).…”

Embracing African Traditional Knowledge Health Systems in a HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 Pandemic Era

“…In a sense, the vaccines production, especially the "warp speed" had not been done according to strict WHO guidelines of vaccine development. Vaccines development had previously taken decades to be approved (Arukwe, 2022). Nevertheless, a study on CVO by Professor Chidi Osuagwi, a medicinal chemist and medical biochemist from the African Center for Biomedical Engineering Research proved the efficacy of Madagscan CVO is treating Covid-19.…”

“…While we acknowledge the shortcomings of traditional knowledge in health systems, we must also equally appreciate the shortcomings of western medical approaches (trial and error vaccines) in curing numerous illnesses in African and other contexts. Arukwe (2022) questions this biomedical hegemony of “cure” by noting the “copy and paste” approach by Africans governments who completely adopted European and American traditional approaches to managing pandemics, which denied a nuanced and effective response to the pandemic. This one-size-fits-all approach ignored that Africa faces different social, cultural, political, and economic challenges.…”

“…Historically, health approaches in Africa by colonial authorities were steeped in cultural racism wherein white settlers presented themselves as innately superior, and hence having the responsibility to save peoples in former Third World countries from their backward health approaches (Arukwe, 2022). Here, the core of cultural racism was that former Third World countries were inferior, cultural, politically, economically, and otherwise, and that white settlers were saviors who were there to assist black peoples to progress in any means (Arukwe, 2022). Therefore, colonization was the beginning of the denigration of African approaches to health, belief systems, and ways of life (Ngunyulu et al, 2020).…”

“…Nevertheless, a study on CVO by Professor Chidi Osuagwi, a medicinal chemist and medical biochemist from the African Center for Biomedical Engineering Research proved the efficacy of Madagscan CVO is treating Covid-19. His study showed that CVO contained artemisinin , an extract of Atermisia annua plant which killed malaria parasites, coronavirus, or other microbes, which made CVO a potent solution for COVID-19 (Osuagwi, 2020, cited in Arukwe, 2022).…”