OPINION: ‘The virus out of Africa has arrived.’ Do Black African lives actually matter?

By: Ivy Mbayah

African countries have long borne the brunt of health-related inequality, from the widespread outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in 2013 and continued battle against HIV/AIDS. This time, the Omicron COVID-19 variant has taken center stage. 

Rather than being applauded for the detection of the new variant, African countries are being punished for alerting the world.

Die Rheinpfalz, a German newspaper, recently published a photo of a Black African mother and child with a headline that loosely translated to, ‘the virus from Africa is with us’. Similarly, La Tribuna de Albacete, a Spanish newspaper, illustrated a cartoon showing how Black South Africans were coming to Europe on a boat ‘with’ the Omicron variant. 

While Southern African scientists identified and reported the first cases of Omicron in November 2021, John Nkengasong from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rightly told CNN, “identifying a new strain or a new variant doesn’t mean it came from there.” 

I spent my childhood and formative years in Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, so the recent backlash of African nations being blamed for the Omicron variant ‘hits home’. To make matters worse, the outrageous response involving recent travel bans which are not based in science from the international community has been disheartening, appalling and inexcusable.  

President Biden himself acknowledged that the American travel ban was unlikely to stop the virus in the New York Times opinion article ‘Biden’s highly selective travel ban does not make sense’.

Living as an African in the West, it is difficult to witness the deeply rooted anti-African sentiments, akin to neo-imperialism, that have been exposed. It speaks volumes of the economic and educational opportunities that my African family, friends and colleagues are denied. Sadly, I think of all the immigrants similar to me who are impacted as they may not be able to see family members due to the travel ban.

Spikes in coronavirus cases are ‘entirely avoidable, entirely preventable with vaccines’, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Time Magazine cites that the low vaccination rates in the developing world make it more likely for dangerous new mutations to form as the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads unchecked. Nonetheless, this does not create grounds for parts of the West to call it ‘the virus out of Africa’ and exclude us through red listing.  

Less than 8 percent of the 1.3 billion African population is fully vaccinated, while across the US and Europe, over 58 percent of individuals are vaccinated with more and more booster shots being supplied. 

Vaccine distribution from the developed world to the developing world, although increasing, has not been sufficient. According to Reuters, African governments have been crying out for higher vaccine deliveries this year, but production constraints and hoarding by richer countries severely limited supplies until recently.

As a result, most African countries are socio-economically disadvantaged in combating Covid-19 to begin with, given higher exposure to associated risk factors and lack of access to vaccine technology.

So, why should we be ‘blamed’ for the new variant? At the end of the day, no one is safe unless we are all vaccinated. 

Dr. Ayoade Alakaji, co-chair of the Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance, is displaying excellent leadership in fighting this narrative. “Had the first Covid virus... originated in Africa, it is now clear the world would have locked us away and there would have been no urgency to create a vaccine,” she said in an interview with CNN.

The graphic above illustrates Alakaji’s point. As of November 29,  Botswana and South Africa were the only African nations with confirmed cases of the Omicron variant. Yet shockingly, people traveling from the UK and European Union – countries with confirmed cases of the variant – were not banned from entering the US. The economic impacts to trade and tourism of the African countries that have been banned from the West are also being blatantly ignored. 

This vaccine apartheid will only be resolved by shifts in geopolitical mindsets to prioritize common sense and changes in policy. Specifically, decisions such as travel bans need to be based in science, and overall, we need a fair and equal pandemic treaty. 

In the words of American journalist Dan Rather, “the only sustainable path to justice must begin with a reckoning of the injustices of the past and the present.” 

This is a unique opportunity for African leaders to unite in the fight against global racism narratives and rampant health inequality, allowing science - not politics - to lead the way. 

Black African Lives Matter.