‘It is the antichrist. Can't you see?’ Perceptions of COVID-19 among Nigeria's Christians and the Religion—Health Debate

Abstract

How does religion influence health? Responses to this question have shown that religious beliefs could have positive and negative effects on people's health. This paper focuses on religion's influence on how believers perceive and deal with diseases, and it aims to contribute to the debate by considering how COVID-19 was interpreted in Sub-Saharan Africa's Nigeria, which has been regarded as very religious, partly because the majority of her citizens identify as Christians or Muslims. It explores perceptions of COVID-19 in the country using data collected between March and May 2020, from (a) in-depth interviews with Christians in various states in the southern part of the country, (b) Facebook polls and (c) articles and readers' comments on the websites of Nigeria's Punch and Vanguard Newspapers. The findings corroborate the notion that (a) religion could have a negative influence on people's views about, and responses to, diseases, and that (b) religious organisations could serve as helpful partners in the fight against diseases. However, the data also demonstrate how the religious responses occurred within a context of political failure, which, in turn, is a major threat to public health in Nigeria. This suggests that to understand and successfully deal with the negative religious and cultural views about diseases in societies where such unhelpful relationships exist, it may be useful to consider how wider political and socio-economic realities help to shape those perceptions or the preference for religious sources of interpretation and healing.