Image courtesy of Flickr.
By Cynthia Akanga ’25
Staff Writer
Two months ago, South African researchers discovered the new COVID-19 variant now named Omicron. While their prompt report garnered accolades from the World Health Organization, many countries in the West, such as the U.K., U.S. and Canada, readily enacted travel bans against South Africa and other African nations. The justification behind the travel bans was to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant. However, according to the WHO, “Implementing blanket travel bans, which are not effective in suppressing international spread, as clearly demonstrated by the Omicron experience, … may discourage transparent and rapid reporting of emerging [variants of concern].”
As reported by BBC, a statement by the South African foreign ministry criticized the travel bans, stating that the bans were “akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker.”
Nafeesah Ahmed-Adedoja ’23, an international student from the U.K. and Nigeria, said, “The fact that a developing nation can detect a variant is very powerful to me. I'm proud that it was done in South Africa and [that] we have the technology to detect variants.” Ahmed-Adedoja further added, “[Though], instead of being applauded for the work that South African scientists did … it was used against Africa because … in the early days of the pandemic, Africa wasn't being affected as much by the pandemic … compared to countries in the West.”
In the same vein, Diamond Abiakalam-Chinagorom ’25, an international student from Nigeria, stated, “In the initial stages of the pandemic, many articles talked about how this would be [catastrophic] for low-income, developing countries in Africa. But the reality was that [Africa had] the lowest mortality rates, [which] caused a shock factor.”
Last year, the WHO reported that Africa was the continent with the least impact from COVID-19 out of all continents. As reported by ABC News, Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University, said, “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better.”
Many African leaders also criticized the travel bans, especially the U.K. travel ban that consisted only of eleven African countries — Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Nigeria’s high commissioner, Sarafa Tunji, agreed with UN secretary general António Guterres, who called the U.K.’s red list “travel apartheid”, as reported by NewsConcerns. Similarly, CNN reported that Lazarus Chakwera, the president of Malawi, used the term “Afrophobia.”
Similarly, Ahmed-Adedoja highlighted the unfair treatment of Africans in response to the Delta variant. She stated, “When the Delta variant developed, a ban wasn’t immediately imposed on India. In fact, many news articles pointed out that they waited too late to put India on the red list.”
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs British Parliament's Home Affairs Committee, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that, “[The U.K.] should have put India on the red list at the same time as Pakistan and Bangladesh.” Cooper says the delay led to an influx of cases of the new variant.
Ahmed-Adedoja further illustrated how African countries are treated differently than other nations. She continued, “People in the Netherlands admitted that they had discovered the variant and not reported it. There was no action taken against the Netherlands or any other European nation, for that matter. It seems like there’s always a pattern where if you’re in the West, then there is [a] kind of forgiveness, but if you are in a developing nation then it’s not the same thing.”
Ahmed-Adedoja was happy the Nigerian government spoke out against the travel ban. “It was groundbreaking and very important in the long run for other African countries to be able to realize that they can speak out and they don’t have to be in a chain of silence forever,” Ahmed-Adedoja said.
Abiakalam had mixed emotions. “I was happy because it’s time for us to speak up to countries in the West even though they have more political power in the world. It’s time for us to start being seen as equals,” Abiakalam said. “I feel like this is really changing the narrative of how the world sees African countries as always being submissive.”
Though both students were happy about Nigeria putting their foot down in response to the unfair travel ban, they acknowledged the toll that these travel bans took on Africans both at home and abroad. Ahmed-Adedoja highlighted, “Many Africans suffered because they couldn’t see their families or go back to their country of residence. Most importantly, the economy of these countries went downhill.”
“There are many Nigerians in the U.K., so many citizens were personally affected. Also, the ban was during Christmas when many Nigerians come back home to visit their family. So, a lot of Nigerians were stuck or had to pay crazy hotel fees,” Abiakalam said. Due to Nigeria’s placement on the red list, people coming from there had to pay approximately £2,285 out of their pockets to quarantine for ten days in a hotel, as reported by The Guardian.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to and also to recover from the pandemic,” as reported by The Guardian.
Ahmed-Adedoja further explained the effect on the economy by shining light on the “stigma” that travel bans can impose on countries. She expressed that the effects of the travel bans are long-term, so even when restrictions are lifted, affected countries still suffer from the ban’s implications. She continued, “If a country is put on a red list, then it shows that its ability to deal with the pandemic is not very effective. These would also affect the economy of these countries … because fewer tourists would want to travel there.”