Radio discourses, epidemic maps and local representations of COVID-19 in Guinea

If COVID-19 epidemics confirmed social sciences' interest for the study of social media (Lee Hugues et Pale, 2009) and infodemic (Vosoughi et alii, 2018) in epidemic contexts, it also excluded a large part of the population still important in Africa from the production of knowledge: those who cannot access internet because of lack of connection and/or illiteracy. This paper fills this gap by analyzing local representations of COVID-19, drawing on the longitudinal study of radiophonic discourses in national languages and face-to-face ethnography led by anthropologists among the population. It examines how COVID-19 was appropriated and interpreted by Guinean population through the mobilization of epidemic, political and historic local experiences. It also considers how the evolution of local representations of the pandemics, over time and over political and economic perturbations, illustrates a progressive cognitive and practical lack of public interest in the virus. To do so, radio shows in national languages including participation from the public on COVID-19 topic were systematically recorded, transcribed and translated in French from March to August 2021. National languages included sosoxui for Basse-Cote, pulaar for Moyenne Guinee, kissiye and kp epsilon l epsilon epsilon woo for the Forest region, and maninkakan for Haute-Guinee. Long-term participant observation and face-to-face interviews were led in the cities of Conakry and Mamou, and in the rural areas of Forecariah from May 2020 to December 2021 among health professionals and general population. These data were analysed thematically and chronologically to examine how the epidemics was discussed and the restriction measures commented by the population through time. From March to May 2020, the massive diffusion of information about COVID-19, both at international and national level, led the Guinean to take ownership of the protection measures against the epidemic - the traumatic memory of Ebola playing a major role. However, as the epidemic event merged with the 2020 controversial electoral process, local populations began to question the relevance of the epidemic management policies and restriction measures. The reduced number of positive cases led to a trivialization of COVID-19 and to a rising popular resistance against restriction measures such as confinement and wearing a mask. The virus appeared exogenous and concerning only national elites and populations of Northern countries. The representation of the epidemic, first powered by the trauma of Ebola, rapidly turned to the register of coercion: now called the "Screwdriver epidemic", COVID-19 in Guinea appears for the local populations as the reproduction of the unequal relation binding them to their elites, as Guinea is bound to the rest of the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic in francophone West Africa: from the first cases to responses in seven countries.

BACKGROUND: In early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit West Africa. In response, countries in the region quickly set up crisis management committees and implemented drastic measures to stem the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The objective of this article is to analyse the epidemiological evolution of COVID-19 in seven Francophone West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal) as well as the public health measures decided upon during the first 7 months of the pandemic. METHODS: Our method is based on quantitative and qualitative data from the pooling of information from a COVID-19 data platform and collected by a network of interdisciplinary collaborators present in the seven countries. Descriptive and spatial analyses of quantitative epidemiological data, as well as content analyses of qualitative data on public measures and management committees were performed. RESULTS: Attack rates (October 2020) for COVID-19 have ranged from 20 per 100,000 inhabitants (Benin) to more than 94 per 100,000 inhabitants (Senegal). All these countries reacted quickly to the crisis, in some cases before the first reported infection, and implemented public measures in a relatively homogeneous manner. None of the countries implemented country-wide lockdowns, but some implemented partial or local containment measures. At the end of June 2020, countries began to lift certain restrictive measures, sometimes under pressure from the general population or from certain economic sectors. CONCLUSION: Much research on COVID-19 remains to be conducted in West Africa to better understand the dynamics of the pandemic, and to further examine the state responses to ensure their appropriateness and adaptation to the national contexts.

Epidemics and Covid-19 in african prisons: an opportunity for a truly comprehensive health approach

The Covid-19 epidemic is an opportunity to underline how prison health on the African continent remains a weak link of the prison system. Beyond the difficulties in caring for Covid-19 in detention, prison infirmaries, where they exist, are rarely integrated into the health system in practice. Administrations provide little for the vital needs of prisoners. Dietary deficiencies are frequent, skin diseases recurrent and prisoners are most often dependent on the financial means of their families or NGOs when it comes to access to health care. The social illegitimacy of the prison population and the reluctance of States to offer convicted prisoners what they do not guarantee to the general population are two arguments put forward to justify what amounts to necropolitics. At the same time, international actors working in prisons essentially target pathologies with epidemic potential, constrained by funding sources (UNAIDS, Global Fund) supporting population-wide health strategies. Here we would like to return to these two logics and develop an argument for a decompartmentalized approach to prison health. Beyond the recognition of individual health experience and epidemiological concerns, addressing prison health globally contributes to the restoration of prisoners' dignity and rights by the State, a necessary condition for the maintenance of citizenship beyond confinement.