As of 08 April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been widespread in Africa, leaving only two countries without reported cases while the number of confirmed cases and deaths poses an alarming rate.
Comment:
The pandemic not only has brought disaster in the social and medical aspect in Africa but also reveals weak sentiments in leadership as well as the colonial relationship between Africa and the Western colonialists that shifted the style of colonialisms from old to neo colonialisms, using their puppets to rule on their behalf.
On 01/04/2020, Camille Locht, head of research at French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Jean-Paul Mira, head of Intensive Care at the Cochin Hospital in Paris suggested that Africa is a better place for testing the COVID-19 vaccine. This statement by French doctors caused uproar and condemnation by many prominent individuals as a racist one, yet the head of the National Biological Institute in Congo Jean-Jacques Muyembe welcomed the idea.
In his remarks, Muyembe told the media: “We have been chosen to conduct these tests…he further suggested “clinical trials could begin in July or August.” (MSN 03/04/2020)
Muyembe’s remarks sparked controversy in Congo and Africa in general, amid charges the population was being used as guinea pigs. This scenario shows the master-slave relationship between Western colonialists and their puppet African leaders who are ready to sell their people for the sake of power and petty benefit.
While Congo is ready to sacrifice her people for the French colonial master, some African officials highly affected by capitalists and colonial ideas of viewing themselves as better than the rest of people, refuse the issue of quarantine. This has been an issue in Tanzania to be mentioned in Parliament, following one of Zanzibar Minister initially deliberately refused to be located at quarantine-isolated area, a similar case took place to Kilifi deputy Governor in Kenya. While in Botswana some “members of Parliament also breached home quarantine rules, thus spreading the risk of pandemic to public. Latter the government removed them from their homes to government supervised quarantine after reaction from the masses.
This is how far carelessly these African colonialists watchdogs are, selling and risking lives of their people that experiencing higher local transmission following the initial sporadic importation of cases. To this date 08/04/2020, Africa has 7,105 reported cases and 324 deaths. (COVID-9 WHO African Region, External Situation Report 6).
While African leaders embrace evil Western Capitalist ideology and behave humbly to colonial masters, it’s irony thinking that the Western Capitalists will seriously help Africa to combat the COVID-19 pandemic despite the fact that they have been exploiting its resources for more than a century now.
Africa is facing many problems that the Western Capitalist nations have failed to seriously help it including combating hunger, 257 million people are experiencing hunger in Africa (World Vision, 24/10/2019), poverty where the number of poor is rising from 278 million people in 1990 to 413 million in 2015 (WB, 09/10/2019). Some other reports suggests the continent will be home to 90% of the world’s poor by 2030, without access to clean water, etc.
It is time for the continent of Africa to wake up from vivid failures of the ideology of Capitalism not only in Africa but throughout the world. On the other side, we remind them that Africa was safe and prosperous under Islam from the 7th century CE (614 CE) onward. Since then, all African provinces under Islamic Caliphate enjoyed better living, maximum security and protection from Islamic Caliphate and their local states leaders. The Khilafah state always felt obliged to protect and safeguard Muslims to the extent that on 1586 CE the Caliph (Khilafah Uthmaniya) in Istanbul sent an army under General Mir Ali Bey that managed to end the Portuguese invasion of Muslims in the East African coastal states.
Said Bitomwa
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Tanzania
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