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Miss. TINA, The African Ruling Class, And The Intelligentsia Class: A Romantic Tale Amidst Coronavirus By Temitope Maberu-Fagunwa

The unproductive ruling class on the continent must immediately begin the process of prioritizing the safety of our elders as we continue to engage the virus on all fronts.

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The argument of the African ruling class, and their comradely class of intelligentsia, in defence of toxic ideas, has always been TINA. Simply put, TINA means There Is No Alternative. Under the regime of TINA, the motto is “Any other way is no way”. In postcolonial Africa, TINA-leaders have existed, and are still in existence. They are the World Bank and IMF African big shots. In the African intelligentsia circle, TINA-intellectuals existed, and even so exist as chief mannequins of Western ideology. By reputation, the African TINA-intellectual is not equipped to commit to a society different from the attitudes and ideologies of capitalism and bourgeois society. Innately, Nigerian TINA-intellectual is motivated by the desire to be more British than the British. 

The duty of intellectuals in any society is the provision of the impetus and leadership towards advancement, the postcolonial African society has been denied this right by her TINA-intellectuals. The African TINA-intellectual in the thick of absorbing Western narratives would preclude outrightly the possibility of an African context. So while there was a Western context for the 2013 Ebola virus, the African TINA-intellectual would violently thrash out the need for an African context for the 2020 Corona virus. The state of the Ebola virus in 2014 did not deter Western virologists from ascertaining the basis for the small outbreaks and isolated cases in the United Kingdom, Italy, United States and Spain. Antithetically, the African TINA-intellectual, like its political elites, is impassive in probing the rationale behind the specific hypotheses that borders on the experiences of the continent amidst the raging Covid-19. 

The absolute redirection of African biomedical and epidemiological studies have its root in the late 19th century imposition of “global health”. This singular act would severely transform African medical history into Western biomedicine. To impose its assumed superiority, Western biomedicine disregarded the long-standing activities of African specialist healers and clinicians. The methods of treating acute and chronic illnesses were to be considered “primitive and ineffective”. In a surprise turnaround, decades into colonialism, Western biomedicine led research into the biomedical perspectives of the African people. One of the products of this research would be the discovery of a new medical discipline – tropical medicine. 

It was observed by European colonial administrators that there were extant infectious disease that the African people were functionally immune to, but they were not, to a larger extent. Sleeping sickness, syphilis, yellow fever, etc. were some of the infectious diseases the European specialists were forced to research into for the benefits of members of the colonial administrative class. On malaria, a phytopathological inquest on African therapeutics was exceedingly relied on. This reliance resulted into the advent of the earliest 19th century powdered cinchona bark for malaria treatment. Quinine afterwards became a source of income for the 20th century European pharmaceutical companies and malariologists. This background is necessary to indicate that the African TINA-intellectual can undermine the existence of African therapeutics to conceal its impotence, these ideas and practices however have endured far greater persecution under colonialism. 

The obscurity of the historical biomedicine of the African societies had repressed the possibility of the emergence of a peculiar field of epidemiology. While almost every human society draws inspiration from its biomedical and epidemiological histories amid epidemic and pandemic disease outbreaks, postcolonial African society is lost in the woods of “global health”. Recently, African medical specialists, who are honest students of Western biomedicine, were charged by the World Health Organization (W.H.O) to develop indigenous health perspectives in tandem with the dictates of “global health”. Indeed, W.H.O should be prepared for an endless wait because the supposedly African health perspectives mirrors Western biomedicine. No event has proven this to be truer than the recent Corona virus pandemic.  

Covid-19 is raging globally. With a record of over 2,000 deaths, Italy is one of the most hit countries. Italian virologists have tied this to the country’s second oldest population in the world. The older population in most affected countries, according to reports, are the most vulnerable to the virus because of weaker respiratory systems. Children conversely are more immune and resistant to Covid-19 since they have pristine lungs. In 2017, Africa emerged as the world’s youngest continent, with 60% of her population under age 25. Could this be related to the fewer cases of Corona virus patients that have been recorded so far on the continent? If this hypothesis is scientifically valid, what plans are in store in preventing our elders from the deadly virus? But, alas, none. The African ruling class and her TINA-intellectuals have been so far interested, only, in parroting Western measures of social distancing and self-isolation. 

The attempt to undermine the possibility of an “African context” for this virus is scandalous. In a continent where saner housing policies are not in existence, social distancing and self-isolation are not just mythical models but illusive. The bankruptcy of alternatives in Africa is indeed a virus in itself. This bankruptcy is evident in the current helpless state of the African ruling class. Governments across the continent are awaiting Western vaccines in spite of Cuba’s leading achievement against the virus. Here is a country whose medical advancement is diametrically related to African therapeutics. Scientists who are genuinely interested in redefining the history of African biomedicine have pointed out that neither the European nor the Asian prediction models can be depended upon. It is perhaps in line with this theory that the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recently reported that Corona virus patients in the country displays some rare symptoms that are yet unclear. In addition to this, the discovery of the first genome sequence of Sars-Cov-2 in Africa, based on the examination of the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Nigeria, is a pointer to the essentiality of an African medical model at this time. 

In fighting this deadly virus on the continent, African medical practitioners must develop a predictive model that will be cognizance of African biomedical and epidemiological histories. This is critical in order to develop models and solutions that can easily be accessible nationally and continentally. The unproductive ruling class on the continent must immediately begin the process of prioritizing the safety of our elders as we continue to engage the virus on all fronts. Although the ability for us to study the etiology of diseases has been beclouded with imposed perspectives, African medical practitioners have the historic duty of embracing the field of African therapeutics. This field has the capacity of bequeathing to the globe the much awaited alternative to Western biomedicine. At this time when humanity is at the verge of absolute anarchy, the African continent has the historical duty of advancing its purpose beyond being the mother of humanity and civilization, into the protector of the universe.  

Temitope Maberu-Fagunwa

Historian and Afrobeater.