Covid 19 has Africa at a Crossroads-Pan-Africanism or Capitalism

Source: https://images.app.goo.gl/7omgrUMquSUSzhdd6

To eat and risk contracting COVID-19 or to be locked down and risk not eating.  This is the decision that many African people are facing at this very moment.  The devastating impact of COVID-19 on humanity is not in question here.  Nor is the issue that Africa cannot afford to be plagued with COVID-19 or death by starvation.

What is in question now at this very moment is what road will Africa and African people decide to take?  As we speak many countries are on a partial or full lockdown where everyone, but essential employees must stay inside their homes and not work and wait for the horror of the virus to pass by their small, medium or large nations.  However, public outcry and protests from Cape Town (South Africa) to Accra (Ghana) to Mangochi (Malawi) show that a lockdown like what is occurring in parts of Europe and the US is not as easy as it seems in most African countries.

In Ghana, the partial lockdown was lifted with the Social Distancing protocols still intact. In South Africa, the lockdown is still in place and in Malawi, the lockdown has been suspended by the high court.  Most nations on the continent are at different stages of the fight against both COVID-19 and hunger.  Before I go on let me be crystal clear that I am in no way criticizing any government for their handling of the crisis. I am however trying to ask critical questions about why Africa is facing a crisis of this magnitude as individual nation-states and not a unified continent.

Kwame Nkrumah and his contemporaries advocated for Pan-Africanism-a unified Africa politically, economically and socially.  63 years on and the Pan-African vision of Julius Nyerere, Sekou Toure, W.E.B. Du Bois, Shirley Graham Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and many others feels farther away than ever.   Although there are regional and continental bodies that are independently and perhaps collectively trying (their best) to tackle COVID-19 it is not enough. It will not be enough because there is not a unified political and economic system that addresses Africans basic human needs (Health Care, Employment, Housing, Education, etc).  The lack of these basic human rights is only going to exacerbate the reach of COVID-19 on the continent (another point of clarity – these human rights are lacking because of capitalism and neo-colonialism).

Pan-Africanism is now needed more than ever before! What we need is a Pan-African response to COVID-19 and Capitalism.  For the absence of any confusion when I say Pan-Africanism I mean: The total Liberation and Unification of Africa under Scientific Socialism.  However, some may not be ready to accept Scientific Socialism as the economic system in Africa.  This is not a sticking point at this moment. What is a sticking point is that Africa and African nations must unify beyond the surface-level of agreements or unions.  Africa needs a unified response to COVID-19 and to capitalism (the primary reason for underdevelopment in Africa)!!!

This response must be executed at the individual, community, national and continental level!  Let me humbly suggest the following ways forward:

Individuals:

What roles are individuals playing in fighting COVID-19?  Are they sitting in their houses waiting on the pandemic to pass?  This is not good enough! Every individual must dedicate themselves to fighting for the integrity of their community, nation, and continent.

This can easily happen if we viewed ourselves as agents of development and defenders of Mother Africa. Africans regardless of class or class mobility have a role and responsibility to transform Africa. What is the role of the lecturer, market women, businesswoman or man, or politician, etc?  We must:

1. 1. Institute public/political education campaigns (organized collectively and in smaller communities) – we must transform our ideology to one that seeks direction to one that has its own agency.
   2. Create and donate funds to help support people who live from hand to mouth. This goes beyond going to buy at a shop and asking for a reduced price. We must sacrifice our own comforts to donate to a fund that will serve as a humanitarian bridge during this time.

Community:

1. 1. The community is a manifestation of the people and as such there may be some overlapping suggestions or individuals who find themselves in all these spaces.
   2. The community must be led by traditional leaders, religious leaders (some people will be angry with me saying this–but this is Africa), revolutionary organizations, environmental activists, scholars on the front lines, unions, etc.
   3. These leaders must lead a political education campaign that challenges the role of Pan-Africanism in fighting this pandemic. They must challenge capitalism as the fundamental contradictions.  These organizations must create spaces for the community to come together and make collective decisions about the way forward.
   4. They must not just use their leverage as leaders to exploit the masses for their own gain. They must use their roles to encourage the people to challenge the status quo; they must organize community fundraisers to support those who need support. They must step in to fill the gap between their class and that of the majority of Africans.
   5. The organization of small study groups to engage with both Pan-Africanism as a movement and concept. It will challenge the community to get involved in the Pan-Africanism, but also can serve as a vehicle for identifying community challenges.

Nation:

1. African nations must first and foremost provide the following for their citizens:
   1. A weekly allowance to everyone in the country who lives hand to mouth.  This includes those people who are not citizens but came into the country to work or to flee their home countries.  This allowance should be based on the country and what is needed to live for 1 week.  This can easily be administered through mobile money.
   2. If it is not feasible to give a monthly allowance provide food rations every week.  Let’s look to Cuba for this example.
   3. Immediately, provide compulsory health insurance to everyone in the country.  This is not the pay for play model but one that allows everyone to go to a health clinic without the fear of not having money to pay.
   4. Employ all nurses, doctors and medical professionals that are trained and not employed.
   5. Train community advocates and health education workers to go door to door in every community to hold education sessions about COVID-19. There are many University graduates who would (with the correct PPE) be excited to contribute to this fight.
   6. Develop employment programs for individuals who lost their businesses or who are chronically unemployed.  This can be an extension of national service campaigns but people especially Youth will need jobs.
   7. Coordinate responses to COVID-19 across borders. Do not look inward; recognize that when your neighbour country is plagued with cases you may soon be plagued as well.
   8. Slowly reduce dependence on importing solutions-the virus has exposed that an over-dependence on importing anything from financial support to food can drastically cripple states. 

Continent:

1. The Continental question is a much larger and more complex question to answer.  This is to say that we need a comprehensive dialogue around this question of continental unity and how to promote Pan-Africanism.
2. The continent needs to play the long game when it comes to a response to COVID-19 and Capitalism.
3. The African Union and other regional bodies need to promote the establishment of a universal and compulsory healthcare system across the continent.
4. Look to Cuba and invest in free quality and Africanized higher education including medical schools to ensure that there are enough doctors throughout the continent to combat the onslaught of COVID-19 but also HIV/AIDS, Hypertension, Heart Disease, Asthma, and other non-communicable diseases.
5. On a continental basis, there needs to be a serious discussion about the large “informal sector” of workers who have neither the ability to sustain their families for 1 week much less several months economically.  This population contributes to the economy in African countries, yet they are the least protected.  
6. Promote African financial institutions that can address nations economic shortcomings. After all the fight against a lockdown or to lift a lockdown is an economic fight.
7. Take the discussion about Pan-Africanism and continental unity to the base and encourage every African to get in the fight for Pan-Africanism.

I am not a politician; I am an activist and academic who may have lofty ideas about the way forward.  However, the suggestions above are not new and have been provided by Pan-Africanist that proceeded me in death and those who are my contemporaries.  At what point will we decide enough is enough?