Value of African’s life
The Covid-19 saga and the additional dislocation it has caused in the lives of Africans who, at the best of times have always been at the mercy of myriad ill-winds, made me ruminate over why we are always the ones to hold the short end of the stick as if there’s something bewitching our stars. […]
The Covid-19 saga and the additional dislocation it has caused in the lives of Africans who, at the best of times have always been at the mercy of myriad ill-winds, made me ruminate over why we are always the ones to hold the short end of the stick as if there’s something bewitching our stars.
The rest of the world doesn’t think much of us. And, from the way some of us behave, it seems we don’t think much of ourselves either. That is why a black-on-black xenophobic attack (as happened in South Africa) is more likely than a mob action against any other race.
We were the first humans to grace the surface of God’s earth. We had a glorious past before other races rudely interrupted our giant strides. But what has happened since then? Why are we the most miserable beggars and debtors on the planet today? Even the yellow pint-sized people from China who we used to look at with amusement are now our creditors and, in some cases, landlords.
US and European institutions can’t give bribe or participate in underhand dealings on the scale the Chinese routinely do. The Asian champions seem to prefer nations who default in repayment so that they, the lenders, can take over the running of the project as happened in Zambia.
Chinese companies usually import required labour from China. Where they employ Africans, the staff are not allowed to unionise and are treated like garbage with the acquiescence of the local authorities.
From the era of slave trade and colonisation, we have entered a period of voluntary enslavement where our youths, desperate to escape the dysfunctional environment at home, offer themselves as willing slaves in Europe, America, the Middle East and Far East. This is ironic because, of all the world’s continents, Africa is the richest in terms of resources.
The misrule of African leaders devalues African life, deplete our resources and destroys the feeling of self worth. When we treat our own people as garbage, can we reasonably expect others to treat us better? Abuse of Africans is wrong, whether perpetrated by Chinese, Americans, Arabs, Europeans or even African leaders themselves.
Milton G. Allimadi, publisher of Black Star News says, “Nobody will respect Africans until Africans show that they deserve respect by first getting rid of the misrulers in Africa who continue to abuse Africans, massacre Africans, devalue the lives and essence of Africans.…”
When the sociology of our reaction to Covid-19 is eventually analysed, it will be discovered that it is anything but African. We simply cut and pasted protocols and practices established elsewhere. Not that we needed to reinvent the wheel, but we could have tweaked things to reflect our circumstances. The pathology of Covid-19 shows that age is a serious risk factor. Whereas only 0.2% of those infected in the 10 to 30 years category will die of the disease, victims under the age of 10 are likely to make full recovery. Scientists estimate 0.32% fatality rate in people aged 60 and under, and 6.4% for people over the age of 60. The older you are, the worse the prognosis.
Average male life expectancy in Nigeria is 55 years while that of South Africa (with only 3% of the population over 65 years) is 60 years. Among all the continents, Africa has the largest concentration of young people. The median age in Europe is 42 while that of Africa is 18. If age is a factor in Covid-19, and it is, then Africa has less to fear. Rather, we must continue to dread and wage war against malaria, pneumonia, Lassa fever and other Afro-specific diseases routinely depopulating our communities.
Then, look at the lockdown decrees. Logical as they appear, our circumstances dictate that they will mostly be observed in their breach. How do you lock down in a face-me-I-face-you tenement building? The average population in many of the densely populated areas is about eight per room — and some houses have 12 rooms (96 humans) sharing two bathrooms! The situation is worse in some IDPs camps where everybody is literally in the face of everybody else. It is difficult to discountenance the suggestion that relative youth is the armour shielding many of our people against Covid-19.
On this matter of lockdown, I’m on the same page with Prof. Alex Broadbent who counsels that Africa should think outside the box.
“Is there an alternative to lockdown? Yes, lock down areas where this makes sense, and which have the older portion of the population, but don’t lock down where it’s impossible to do so. Regional quarantine may be more effective in Africa, where conurbations are separated by large distances. The benefits of separating at-risk populations also deserve fuller consideration. In Africa, and other developing regions, older people in urban areas often move back to rural areas. In rural villages, it may be possible to separate older and younger people more easily than in a crowded township or slum, where lockdown is a nonsense.”
African lives do matter. It is time we brought some original thinking to bear on how we run our affairs, how we react to various challenges buffeting us on all sides, how we exorcise corruption and navigate the treacherous economic tides away from loan sharks whose sole aim is to compromise the future of our children, and how we generally show the rest of the world that we value our own lives.