Samson Faboye (Postgraduate Student

Reflections on COVID- 19

SAMSON FABOYE Postgraduate Student

In heaves and sighs to rally inner strength, my lips occasionally mutter “This too shall pass!”. Such comforting words attributed to medieval Persian poet Rumi have been a bulwark of mental sanity in these days of ‘self-isolation’ characterised by the Covid-19 induced national lockdown. In a twist of fate, the week starting 15th March ushered cancellation of academic schedules and ultimately the closedown of the University of the Witwatersrand. If 15th March called to mind the soothsayer’s warning to Caeser, “Beware the Ides of March”, maybe Friday 13th march foretold in omens. How triskaidekaphobic!

I had barely settled to life in Johannesburg upon my arrival on 3rd February and was immediately treated to a baptism of fire in flurries of Orientations, Lectures and Seminars. It was all fast paced and every bit yearned for, as I have always aspired to study for an international degree at one of the top two hundred Universities in the Global QS ranking. Through the Wits-TUB Urban Lab, I ‘caught the fancy’ of studying at Wits, a quest which was actualised after many hurdles. Now at Wits, I looked forward to an extensive personal academic reframing, as such, I had bookmarked the schedule of events at the School of Architecture and Planning, deciding which would be a must-attend for me.

Some of the events I had looked forward to attending were the ‘Faces of the City Weekly Seminar’, Italian Design Day, Wits-TUB Summer School. And then, the disruptions started when I got Professor Marie Huchzermeyer’s mail on the 13th March notifying of the cancellation of the WitsTUB Summer School that was to be held on from the 23rd to 27th March. Inevitably, ‘it never rains, but it pours’ as the subsequent week brought tidings of school closure, and then before the end of March, the entire nation was on lockdown.

My plans came crashing as I began to adjust to the reality of being confined at home for a duration that would be realistically indefinite. As I had made my preparations to resume School over Christmas and new year, I had noted a certain epidemic in Wuhan, China, which had caused a lockdown of that city. I felt the epidemic was distant and would fade in no time, just like SARS, Bird Flu, Ebola and Swine Flu. However, as the news of the mass infections outside China drowned media headlines in February, I had initial cause for concern. First, it was South Korea, Iran and then Italy. When some UEFA Champions League Matches were postponed and the subsequent suspension

of League Matches across Europe, I sensed the world would be in for some traumatic moments.

Our interconnected world no thanks to “globalisation, potentially influenced a broad range of biological, environmental and social factors that affect the burden of many important human infections” (Saker, 2004: 17). As an infectious disease, the phenomenon of globalisation is a carrier of COVID 19 – a fact which calls for global concern and collaboration. Lee and Smith (2011) underpin a necessity for Global Health Diplomacy which would leverage on existing international diplomatic frameworks to deepen negotiations and establish governance modalities to tackle global health issues. Though globalisation could be a vector for spreading localised epidemics, “the processes of globalisation can influence the chances of successfully implementing measures to prevent, control and treat infections” (Saker, 2004: 12).

As the realities of the lockdown dawned on me, being a firsttime experience, I began to read about past global pandemics. As an Architect, I had taken courses in Urban Planning during my undergraduate years and I remember that the Planning profession had been established to improve societal living conditions, which had often been undermined by outbreaks of plague.

While the Black Death and bubonic plague seemed distant, the 1918 Spanish Influenza was too close to call in my opinion. The remnants of that pandemic still reside within the legal framework of my home country, Nigeria, and in the 1926 Quarantine Law which was again cited when Nigeria’s President had to declare a lockdown affecting Lagos, my home and place of birth. The Spanish Influenza disease “swept through North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South Pacific. It was exceptionally severe: an estimated onethird of the world’s population was infected. Case fatality rates were calculated at 2.5%” (Tognotti, 2009: 331). Of curious attention in the Spanish Influenza disease was its symptom as a form of “pneumonia with extensive haemorrhaging and oedema in the lung that could kill within few days” (Tognotti, 2009: 332).

As a student of Urban Politics and Governance, I observed closely the impacts on human rights generated by the lockdown disruption in activities. In my home country, Nigeria, there were arguments within legal circles as to whether the President had the constitutional powers

to shut down a state without invoking emergency powers. Invoking emergency powers as set within Nigeria’s operational constitution would mean the suspension of state and local governments, abrogating their powers to the President. Since the Nigerian President stopped short of invoking such, overriding domestic initiatives to curtailing the spread of Covid-19 in Lagos, nevertheless, the arguments as to the legality of the President’s action were drowned in the rounds of desperate times.

In South Africa, the President called for the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist the police in enforcing the lockdown rules. I observed the disapproving reactions of some sections of the South African citizenry to the deployment of the army to manage civilians. Coming from an environment where army presence is a common sight on the highways in Nigeria, I was puzzled by the disapproving reactions. The deployment of online tracking measures to trail the movement of persons requested to selfisolate in Israel, highlighted privacy issues and that raised questions on the modalities of global health governance. I pondered the subject of a “new political space to reconcile the values of equity, social justice and human rights underpinning Health for All, with the highprofile disease-focused initiatives, evidence-based approaches and economic pragmatism demanded by political exigency?” (Lee, 2004: 12).

As I look forward to the normalisation of daily living, the deeper meaning of the World Health organisation’s definition of health “as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (Lee, 2004: 12).

The essence of the year 2020 has been called to question in the light of the significant disruptions it has entailed. Aside from the unfortunate mortalities, the economic disruptions would be deeply felt when the chickens come to roost. The safety measures employed to curtail Covid -19 have taught me an essential thing that my survival depends on the compliance of others. Going forward post Covid-19 I would endeavour to live for others because my well-being depends on the well-being of others around me.

“And when your body has become still, reach out with your heart. Know that we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful. (You could hardly deny it now.) Know that our lives are in one another’s hands. (Surely, that has come clear.) Do not reach out your hands. Reach out your heart. Reach out your words. Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch.”

(Lynn Ungar, 2020)

References:

Barro, R.J., Ursúa, J.F. and Weng, J., (2020). The coronavirus and the great influenza pandemic: Lessons from the “spanish flu” for the coronavirus’s potential effects on mortality and economic activity (No. w26866). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Berridge, V., Loughlin, K. and Herring, R., 2009. Historical dimensions of global health governance.

Lee, K., 2004. The Pit and the Pendulum: Can globalisation take health governance forward?. Development, 47(2), pp.11-17.

Lee, K. and Smith, R., 2011. What is ‘global health diplomacy'? A conceptual review.

Saker, L., Lee, K., Cannito, B., Gilmore, A. and Campbell-Lendrum, D.H., 2004. Globalisation and infectious diseases: a review of the linkages (No. TDR/STR/ SEB/ST/04.2). World Health Organization.

Tognotti, E., 2009. Influenza pandemics: a historical retrospect. The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 3(05), pp.331-334.

Lynn, U, 2020. “Pandemic: A poem applying a Sabbath perspective to the coronavirus crisis”. In Spirituality and Practice. [Online] Available at: https:// www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ quotes/features/view/28852/ pandemic. Accessed on the 28/4/2020.