Covid-19 in Africa: Governance and Containment

Written amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this edited volume draws on the expertise of social scientists and humanities scholars to understand the several ramifications of Covid-19 in societies, politics, and the economies of Africa. The contributors examine measures, communicative practices, and experiences that have guided the (inter)action of governments, societies and citizens in this unpredictable moment. Covid-19 tested governments' disaster preparedness as well as exposed governments' attitudes towards the poor and vulnerable. In the same vein, it also tested the agency of the generality of the African populace in the face of containment measures and how these impacted on everyday social, cultural and economic practices of the ordinary peoples. In this vein, our concern is to understand the relationship between growing vulnerability on the one hand and ingenuity of agency on the other, and how both were embodied, narrated and discoursed by the African poor, university students, religious entities, and middle-classes, and those that bore the major brunt of the lockdowns.

Lastly, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted regional trade and other bilateral relations in Africa, creating possibilities for regional entities such as ECOWAS and EAC to demonstrate their creativity (or a lack of it) in dealing with the pandemic. The contributors thus examine the regional dimension of the crisis and particularly evaluate how covid-19 tested the resilience of multilateralism, regional trade networks, cross border informal economies, and human movements.

The volume is thus a useful resource for scholars of Africa, policy makers and those who want to understand Covid-19 in Africa. It provides a multiplicity of perspectives of the pandemic and African responses at different levels of society, economy and the political spectrum. The continental focus of this volume gives room for broader comparative analyses. Lastly, this interdisciplinary work benefits from the input of medical historians, anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, political scientists, literature scholars, urban planners, geographers and others.

Susan Arndt holds a PhD in African Literature from Humboldt University, Berlin.  She served as co-founding director of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies. She has published widely  on intertextuality, intersectionality and critical race studies, focussing on British and anglophone African Literatures.
 Yacouba Banhoro holds a PhD in African History at the University of Hamburg in Germany in 2005. He is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo of Ouagadougou. He has several publications on the history of Health and Diseases in Africa. He is the Director of the Joseph Ki-Zerbo University's African Cluster which is part of the African Multiple, a scientific cooperation program between the University of Bayreuth and 4 African Universities.
Taibat Lawanson holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. She is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Co-Director of the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is an urban development specialist whose research focuses on the interface of social complexities, urban realities and the pursuit of spatial justice in Africa.
 Enocent Msindo obtained a PhD in African History from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.  He is currently the Dean of Humanities at Rhodes University, South Africa. He is a social and political historian who has published widely on issues of Ethnicity; information policy; and other aspects of African history.
Peter Simatei is a Professor of Comparative Literature at Moi University, Kenya. He has a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. He works in the broad fields of postcolonial studies, Anglophone literature, and Diaspora studies. He has published widely in the area.