COVID–19 travel bans and the reactivation of colonial trauma in Africa

Abstract

Abstract When the Omicron variant of the COVID–19 virus was identified in November 2021, western states responded by immediately imposing a travel ban on African countries in a bid to keep ‘the African virus’ out of their territories. Seen by some as a necessary step to protect western lives, the travel bans caused a visceral reliving among Africans of colonial-era experiences of shame, humiliation and degradation. We know that actors, during times of crisis, exaggerate identity borders between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and we can understand western reactions to the discovery of Omicron against this theoretical backdrop. What is not clear, however, is why the Omicron travel ban caused such a visceral reliving of a past trauma in the African collective. Supported by a qualitative analysis of news media, this research sets out to explain how travel bans imposed by western nations caused a re-traumatization of the African collective, arguing that narratives surrounding ‘Africa's Omicron virus’ are an extension of the ‘heart of darkness’ ideation that dominated imperial European discourse and practice. Deeper understanding of the many ways in which colonial subjugation persists today, the article argues, can help us better respond to similar future global crises.