Omicron and the Politics of Nkali

Omicron is around and the way the west has closed/is closing borders with Africa, one would think that this COVID-19 variant has surfaced only in Africa. This is the politics of nkali, otherwise known as “I big pass you,”  which is also coloured by plain old racism, and so is not rooted in logic or […]

Omicron is around and the way the west has closed/is closing borders with Africa, one would think that this COVID-19 variant has surfaced only in Africa.

This is the politics of nkali, otherwise known as “I big pass you,”  which is also coloured by plain old racism, and so is not rooted in logic or science. It has real consequences. Families with family members abroad who had hoped to spend Christmas in Nigeria together are  having to face the season alone. A friend’s three children who are in school in the UK and who had looked forward to a family reunion in a few weeks’ time suddenly have their plans in a shambles. And because of what? Based on what science and on whose good judgment?

Some astute Nigerian doctors made the point recently that it’s become obvious that had COVID-19 originated in Africa, the world would have insulated itself from Africa to keep the pandemic within Africa’s borders and throw away the key. There would have been no rush to develop vaccines. No talk about how many shots are effective. 

Yes, COVID-19 is dangerous and Omicron is highly transmissible (apparently) and I lack the scientific knowledge to know whether or not travel bans make sense, and I admit to not having read enough literature about the effectiveness of these bans but I know that if they did, giving visitors from countries in Europe with certified Omicron carriers access to the UK and Canada while banning visitors from countries in Africa is ridiculous. Whatever the reasons for the bans were, it isn’t Omicron. That the UK’s bumbling Boris Johnson whose government’s response to the pandemic has been chaotic and muddled has the gumption to place a travel ban on Naija is the biggest joke of all. 

It is crazy that two years into the pandemic which African countries seem to be handling reasonably well, certainly better than some western countries, the world seems shocked that Africans are not dropping dead like flies. It’s been interesting to see how the narrative in the West has been spun to frame Africa as accidentally stumbling into a system that allowed us to control a pandemic that was expected to exterminate us. Never mind that Nigeria, among other African countries, has been intentional in its handling of the outbreak. At the point the NCDC was requiring that visitors into Nigeria be tested for coronavirus and quarantined, you could fly into a busy hub like Atlanta and walk out of the airport without anyone requiring proof of anything.  Not even a verbal assurance that they were COVID-19 free was needed.

So what’s all this nonsense head-scratching about why Africa has remained relatively largely unscathed? While all the headlines suggest that whatever has contributed to Africa’s ability to  ride this through, it doesn’t also  include intentional and extensive government policies supported by scientific knowledge. 

Science thrives on asking questions and curiosity, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  It is good that the world is asking how Africa has managed to stay afloat. The answers, one hopes, will be beneficial to humanity. But genuine science does not look for questions that fit the answers it already has. It does not put the carriage before the horse. There’s nothing scientific about that. It is biased and there’s a name for unfair bias that passes itself up as science: racism. It’s as old as mankind and has been used to justify clearly unjustifiable things that ‘scientists’ were curious about: the size of the black woman’s buttocks; whether or not Africans had smaller brains; whether or not Africans were human at all. The sort of questions science (and anyone really) chooses to ask is never neutral, and not every question derives from a place where the questioner is genuinely seeking knowledge. Some originate in the need to affirm a belief already held. A scientific curiosity for instance that wonders about the humanity of Africans isn’t looking for evidence that Africans are human but rather one that makes the point for Africans being more beast than man because the question is flawed/biased from its inception. To use another example:  if you wonder whether or not the person you are marrying or dating should be trusted for whatever reason, and this question keeps you awake, clearly that trust isn’t there and the question is moot/biased/. All you’re doing really is looking for reasons to justify your distrust. You may go through their phones. You may hack into their emails. You may talk to their friends and neighbours. You may stalk them. You may do all these convincing yourself that you’re still questioning whether or not to trust them but you know the truth.  You don’t do that unless you already do NOT trust that person. Whatever you see or don’t see, whatever answers you get would always be colored by the distrust you already have.

I am going to conclude by asking two questions that aren’t really questions because we know the answer to them. While the west is still busy trying to figure out why Africa hasn’t been incinerated by COVID-19, it is at the same time driving vaccine inequality. I could walk into any CVS tomorrow and demand for a booster shot and get it, yet there aren’t enough vaccines for Africa. Why? Also, why are the US and European countries who have reported evidence of Omicron within their borders not barred from the UK and Canada?