DEVOTIONAL |
Choosing between death and death: A Covid-19 reflection By Rev Dr Sindiso Jele, Mission Secretary, Africa - Council for World Mission
2Ki 7:3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? :4 If we say, 'We'll go into the city'--the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die." The story is about four Samaritan lepers. During that time; they were considered to be outcasts and were asked to live in the outskirts of the village, in the peripheral of the mainstream life. There is an unverified narrative that links this with Gehazi (2 Kings 5:27) and his sons, I will not do that verification, lest I offend the biblical scholars and it is not the objective of this reflection. Verse 4 shows very logical thinking and also links to the topic ‘choosing between death and death’. The lepers argued: whichever way we go we will die. In the case of COVID-19 and subsequently the lockdown, if you remain in the house you will die of hunger, if you go out the virus will kill you, this is the situation in South Africa as the context of this reflection. As mentioned above, I am using South Africa as the context of my reflection since that is where I am working and resident. I can as well use the whole of Africa or whole world, but the reflection would lose particularity and focus. Out of my reading and reflection on the situation I have the following to share: One of the ways suggested as a non-pharmaceutical intervention in the spread of the COVID-19 is social distancing and washing of hands with clean water and soap. The suggestion is very effective considering how it has slowed down the spread of the virus and flattened the infection curve. However, it seems to be designed with certain people in mind. For the people in informal settlements it does not make sense. See the picture below. Also, the gramma of social distancing, needs a multidisciplinary interrogation, the social workers, and language experts need to come on board. The loose application of the concept of ‘Social distancing’ may lead to social isolation that can manifest itself in terms of cabin fever, depression and mental anxiety.
In settlements like these, it is very difficult to talk of social distancing. The people in these areas don’t have drinking water and talking about washing hands with clean water becomes a luxury. The shelters are tiny and there’s hardly any space for a small family to stay together comfortably; bathing, cooking and even sleeping is problematic. There is no garden space to go outside to without being found to be breaking lockdown regulations of staying within the yard if they are not inside the house. Mention the sharing of ablution facilities as well. The other thing in my reflection that comes out of my experience of the COVID-19 and the reading of the text is the militarisation of intervention and conflict resolution in Africa in general. When the lockdown was introduced, 2,280 soldiers were deployed to help the police to enforce the lockdown regulations. The initial lockdown ended on the 30th of April 2020. A new phase comes into effect and more than 70,000 soldiers will be deployed to enforce the curfew which would be part of the new phase. This is the biggest deployment since the dawn of democracy1. This seems to be the problem in Africa where every intervention is militarised. There is some sense of colonial hangover especially on the use of Africa as the testing laboratory. The former colonisers of Africa still consider themselves as superior and in control of Africa, her people and her resources. As much as a cure or vaccine is a matter of urgency; the colonialist and racist undertones contained in turning Africa into a testing laboratory cannot go unnoticed; this qualifies as a crime against humanity.
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INSiGHT | June 2020
