the covid-19 pandemic: there is no guarantee for a new normal
STELLA NYAMBURA MBAU (PhD)
By the end of 2019, Covid-19 was spreading like wildfire in Wuhan, China. There wasn’t any worry in East Africa at the time. Then it spread to Europe and North America. We could now see it coming.
The perception was that somehow Africans were immune. After all, no less than 6 Ugandans were assassinated by police enforcing Covid-19 curfews before a single Ugandan died of the virus itself. There was plenty of misinformation. From the goings-on in the countries battling the pandemic at the time, tissue paper seemed worth stocking. The first Kenyan case was reported in March. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare of tissue paper.
For most Kenyans, life changed ever so slightly. They still ventured out, despite reports of people elsewhere being urged to stay indoors to avoid catching the disease. As the number of cases began to rise, the government imposed tough restrictions, including a dusk-to-dawn curfew and cessation of movement between countries. There were fears of a total lockdown.
Covid-19 not only exposed the inequalities in our communities, but also accelerated them. Pre-Covid information gaps widened. Tech device access and internet access
plummeted. It is fathomable that, on the other side of this pandemic, Africa will come out not just a few steps behind, but far further behind.
Photo by Sambrian Mbaabu/World Bank
The need for change—for a better new normal—has been more of a constant realization than an event. In the presence of Covid-19, an opportunity to make the elusive shift to a new world presented itself. Doing away with wet markets seemed obvious. They were blamed to have been the origin of the contagion. It soon became clear that, just as urgent was the need to tame our expansive footprint that continues to encroach upon sensitive ecosystems and the survival of our very own species.
While some conjured visions of a new normal (just, green, and sustainable), others were up to no good. Someone thought developing a hotel within the park “would go unnoticed if we did it now.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, militiamen summoned by greedy leaders took control of farms in Ituri and other places. The abundant wealth of DRC is being coveted by the wealthy and armed. The forest burns and is being logged while minerals leave the country in the hands of militiamen.
Just because we wanted a new normal so badly, didn’t mean we’d get one with haste. We hadn’t defined this new normal. We assumed everyone was reading from the same script. This has left us with no direction but backsliding. and the backslides have met the response of activists taking to the streets.
Even if we were all reading the same new normal script, it would still take ages to undo the systems that exist today. Still, the youth that most demand it today will go on post-Covid to study and work with the conscious or subconscious assignment of birthing the better new world.
Humanity needs a reset every few decades, a systems overhaul. During these resets—political theorists dub them “shock doctrines”—do we go back to the drawing board? Do we have an evolving reset strategy that applies when triggered or initiated? The reset triggered by Covid-19—a reset long overdue—will be far from our last.
Article photo by Gift Habeshaw
