COVID-19 prayers and quackery won't help Africa

The break of COVID-19 has redefined the world and the way humans variably address and problematize issues. After claiming many lives in the so-called advanced and developed countries by initially sparing the doomed Africa, the world started to ring the knell of death about what’ll be fall Africa after the giants have suffered terribly. That’s precisely because almost everything evil started in Africa. Refer to Ebola that killed thousands of Africans without shaking the world the way COVID-19 has. For those who bother to remember how Africa defied the law of the survival of the fittest must remember how it survived the 2007 credit crunch. Shall Africa survive once again, it won’t be a miracle.  Refer to HIV/AIDS whose first victims were gays in Los Angeles and New York despite the fact that doomsayers shamelessly thereafter claimed that it started from Africa. As well, there are some conspiracy theories that COVID-19 was created to control population while others allege it came to be after accidentally some virus aimed at creating biological weapons got out of control and many more. There is also an assumption that COVID-19 kills many more seniors than others, especially in care homes. Africa might have survived this because it doesn’t have its seniors confined in home because the culture doesn’t allow.

            One important thing that the break of COVID-19 has taught us is the way human reacts towards threats and vulnerability. Whereas the West is informed by science in its efforts to mitigate the spread of the contagion, some of African countries and Africans have pinned their hopes on and are informed by unconventional methods instead of science. Two of such methods are invocations and deception. When it comes to religion, many people still think that prayers can protect them from contracting the virus. Those who don’t understand the vestiges of cultural imperialism that foreign religion unleashed to Africa may wonder how sane people can defy logic by depending on prayers whose efficacy isn’t guaranteed. Again, thanks to the colonisation of the mind, Africans abandoned their ways of life, religions even identity and took refuge in make-believe hoo-has and myths. Whereas the so-called chosen ones or Israelites no longer pray for even dare to expect the manna from heaven,  poor Africans still do for their Peril.  That’s because Africans took everything colonial agents dubiously and maliciously inculcated in them to be true even lies and myths. Such misguided beliefs aren’t only about individual, especially quacks who use the name of God and religion to dupe others and become rich but also are about collective actions if not a suttee. For example, Burundi went great lengths by refusing to embark on any social distancing or lockdown as many countries did simply because the authorities believe Burundians are protected by God against COVID-19. If you ask for proofs on how Burundians are protected, you won’t get any reasonable answer.

            Apart from quacks in the name of God and  unreasonable beliefs in impossible, there are quacks who are now duping other ignorant masses that God enabled them to discover the cure for COVID-19 by simply dreaming or praying for water and herbs. Such criminals are making a killing by duping other illiterates without underscoring the fact that their greed and myopia can result into spreading the pandemic even more. Ironically, some countries aren’t even taking actions against such criminals! And to easily and safely enjoy and exert their powers, foreign religions have always been in bed with the governments all over the world. Wherever there’s a politician, there’s a cleric. The duo is like hyenas and lions. They all hunt together and brutalise their prey the same way. This is because, apart from doing the same job or harvesting where they didn’t sow, they’ve the same type of allegiance and cooperation. There are a lot of online clips of quacks who claim they have discovered the cure for COVID-19. Thanks to using local vernaculars, even youtube has failed to pull their clips down.

In 2010, scholars Lugo and Cooperman conducted research to interrogate the centrality of religion among nations of the world. They found that Africans put more faith in religion than others including those who exported their religions to them. In this research, Senegal led with 98% compared with Italy––where the Roman Catholicism originated with just 24%–– or Saudi Arabia where Islam originated without even providing its data. If it were an exam, when it comes to the importance of religion, Africa would generally score an B average while Europe would generally score an F grade by average. If you want to see how religion has nothing to do with human development flip the data and compared the units of analysis in economic or human development. It is obvious that Africa will score lower than anybody. The argument I make here is that while Africa is fully entrenched in believing in religion as its means of addressing its problems, others believe in science. As well, when it comes to the people who refused to be converted  such as Chinese, Japanese and Koreans or who were partly converted such as Indians, they are the same who are now claiming a big cake of economic development whereas those who totally accepted to be converted such as Africa and Central and South America are languishing in miseries and poverty. This is the irony we need to ponder about and see what this volumes sees and works on to help many out of darkness.

Back to how to arrest and deal with COVID-19, we need to face the truth, tell  and remind each other that prayers and cures discovered by ways of dreams aren’t helpful at all. If there’s anything they can help is spreading the pandemic.  Surely, if we don’t change, we’ll perish not just because God wants us to perish but because we’ve refused to use our heads. Authorities shouldn’t encourage or tolerate backward and mummified thinking simply because they want political mileage. Such a lie will lead to disastrous end not only for those hoodwinked illiterates but also those who cheat them. There are no miracles when it comes to dealing with COVID-19 but only facing the reality that science still has a lot to offer up until now. God gave us brains to think but not to believe. This is why must be our first step to finding solutions to most of our problems before thinking about how, what, when etc.  this applies to all including those who proposed the injection of disinfectants in our bodies to cleanse them.

Source: African Executive Today.