The COVID-19 moment
Zenzo Moyo · 2023
What is striking from the strategies that different countries adopted to mitigate against COVID-19 was the privileging of narrow nationalisms without any due regard to the interconnectedness of the world. While globalisation, by its very nature, peripheralizes the usefulness of borders and physical divisions between countries, narrow responses to the pandemic by many countries seemed to eschew this 21st-century reality. Take, for example, the lack of synchrony by Southern African countries in closing down borders, adopting lockdown procedures, and what the procedures in themselves should have entailed, considering the interdependence of peoples across these borders. While a preoccupation with inward-looking solutions can be appreciated, there is no doubt that the nature, context, and science of COVID-19 required a deep consideration of the human entanglements that cannot be undone by simply closing down borders and the materiality they provide. This chapter, qualitative in its approach, will make use of critical theory to interrogate these strategies, which have been interpreted as narrow nationalisms, taken by governments as a response to the COVID-19 moment. The chapter will use the Southern Africa region as a case study to show the toxicity of inward-looking decisions to the broader cause of regional integration.