Each week, we round up the best writings from across online platforms. These rise above regular reportage, highlighting current issues, the people and the continent – Africa.
Here are the ones that caught our attention:
What do cartoons and our presidents have in common?
Jacob Zuma of South Africa advocated jumping quickly in the shower after a sexual encounter to drown the Aids virus. Now in the face of the Covid-19 disease, two African presidents are touting magic cures. President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar claims that an herbal concoction can cure the disease.
Listen up, Covid-19: If we die in droves, we’ll return even stronger
What is immediately making even chronic optimists among us feel proud are the innovative initiatives already being taken by Africans. Of course, these are initially in response to the Covid crisis itself, but so did past crises like the Second World War bring big developments in all spheres of life including air transport, satellite communication, decolonisation, women emancipation and even finance models, to mention but a few.
Lockdown, Mzansi style: Hairdresser ‘writes’ with his dreadlocks
“Children seem to be ignorant about Covid-19. They often play in the streets and most of them who don’t even wear masks often chase me, stop and stare to read … and that’s when I explain to them to stay at home and use soap to wash their hands regularly.”
What is this place?: The visual simulacrum of South Africa in the Covid-19 lockdown
What’s going on, then? It’s not like the online vision of the left-leaning media stalwarts are wrong. Their vision of South Africa is one I could find, presuming I could burst out my front door (or maybe back door as the cops are manning a roadblock more or less at my front door) without being arrested for violating lockdown.
Covid-19 and African children: The untold story
Several reasons have been proposed to explain the lower health risk of Covid-19 in children. These include immunity from frequent viral infections, lower levels of the angiotensin-converting enzyme mechanism required for viral entry and a less exuberant immune reaction, et cetera.
