God’s Wrath in the Era of the Digidemic: Religious Interpretations of Covid-19 in Ethiopia

Abstract

During the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, many Ethiopians viewed the pandemic as an expression of God’s punishment for sin. Although such interpretations reflect historical continuity, an analysis of these sentiments and of how the pandemic unfolded in Ethiopia reveal an interesting conundrum. Whereas the Covid-19 pandemic clearly has had devastating impacts all over the world, the very experiences that historically generated interpretations of divine punishment and judgement—violent human suffering and mass deaths—have been close to absent in Ethiopia. To understand why many Ethiopians interpreted Covid-19 as an expression of God’s wrath, we develop the concept of the digidemic, allowing us to recognize how the circulation of images, norms, ideas, and goods, via global and digital networks—in addition to fueling fear—created connectedness and a felt proximity, wherein far-away hot-spots and phenomena were made real and near as threats to people’s livelihood and religious worldviews.

COVID-19 Pandemic: The Local Community Perceptions and Associated Risks in Guji Society, Southern Ethiopia

“…The comparative study conducted in Ethiopia, on religious interpretations of COVID-19 notes that the virus is a chastisement of God for the wrong-deeds of people. 16 Similarly, most theological and cultural studies interpret the outbreak and spread of the coronavirus across the world as the wrath of God against the sinful actions and behaviors of human beings, 17–19 which is similar to the findings of this study. Attributing disease and illness to God's retribution is a widespread perception in African culture.…”

The link between aphorisms on Jewish eschatological expectation of the anti-Christ and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Pentecostal Christians in Makurdi, Nigeria

“…This mentality and these homilies from some preachers, especially from Pentecostal denominations, have given the congregants assurance that the vaccine is nothing, because God is involved in the spread of the virus (Østebø, Tronvoll & Østebø 2021;Schnell 2020). Amongst the Christian community of Makurdi communities, the knowledge and awareness about the importance of immunisation, beliefs and attitudes toward immunisation, past experiences with immunisation and health service factors that influenced trust and personal experiences of caregivers and household decision-makers were the main factors that influenced individuals and groups (Akwataghibe et al 2019).…”