SOWETO | “Daily life is almost normal again, but we will not find the life before,” philosopher Petunia Maseko, in a bar in Soweto. Africa, rather spared by COVID-19 which, on the other hand, has stunned its economy, is catching its breath a little after the paralysis linked to the pandemic.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
“It was hard to be deprived of social life,” sighs the young girl in traditional Ndebele dress in bright colors. “It’s still important to de-stress and build a network,” adds the student with the seriousness of her 21 years.
At the Black and White Lifestyle Pub, excitement is at its peak on this first weekend of spring, which coincides with the move to level 1 of containment, the lowest for six months in South Africa. Masked, customers have their temperature measured at the entrance.
Hydroalcoholic gel in hand, DJ Tiisetso Tenyane is playing “again for people, for real”. After video sessions, “it feels really good”.
From now on, “I wear a mask when I leave my home, but it is the last real marker of the pandemic”, notes Petunia.
On the rest of the continent, the daily makes the big difference between strict application of sanitary measures and total relaxation.
“We are resuming our habits”
“We don’t care about the corona”: the sentence is from the Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, who did not think he would be picked up by the microphones, before embracing, in defiance of the barrier measures, a figure of his party in front of thousands of people in August.
In Côte d’Ivoire, if the mask remains compulsory in a closed environment, “it is not respected anywhere or almost”, confides a health worker on condition of anonymity.
“The psychosis is gone and the state no longer communicates too much on the subject.”
In Kinshasa, taking temperatures and washing hands are observed in the business district of Gombe. But in the working-class communes, sagging is everywhere: masks on the chin and tight hands.
For many, “corona eza te” (“There is no corona”, in Lingala).
In Burkina, a country that is going through a serious humanitarian and security crisis, Ousmane Ouedraogo, 43, a fish seller, finds that the mask, “you cannot wear it forever”.
“We tried to wear this every day, but it was the authorities who set the example by pretending that the disease was over. So we are resuming our habits. “
The hand washing device at the entrance to Guillaume Traoré’s café-restaurant, “nobody uses it anymore”. And “when you call a customer, he tells you that the coronavirus does not exist or that he does not carry the virus”.
In Chad as in Gabon, the mask is worn low, covering only the mouth, or even the chin, to indicate that it is worn or to hastily lift it in the presence of the police.
In churches and mosques, in markets, people jostle and greet each other on contact. In the evening, however, a strict curfew remains imposed.
Contagious neglect
In Lagos, Isiaka Okesanya, 41, offers his entire face to passers-by: his mask has remained at home.
“In recent days, I regularly forget about it. God helped us to get rid of the disease, we no longer see big scary numbers, ”explains the official.
The Nigerian government is concerned about contagious neglect. “The numbers are falling, but we can not yet congratulate ourselves”, warns the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, citing the eruption of second waves “in rich countries which thought they had overcome the coronavirus”.
“It is still there, very real. We must continue to take precautions until we are able to control it ”, insists Emmanuel Akinyemi, director of the Estate Clinic in Lagos.
Africa was spared from the “exponential spread” of the epidemic (lower average age, low population densities), the WHO noted last week. But “we must be careful not to over-mediate a success” which remains fragile, warns the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the African Union, John Nkengasong.
Kenya, where contamination is slowly declining, reopens its bars on Tuesday and delays the entry into force of the night curfew by two hours, but keeps its schools closed.
In Senegal, life has resumed almost normally since June.
Striking contrast with Rwanda, where one of the strictest lockdowns continues: arrests of those who “do not wear masks properly” and police patrols to prevent gatherings, including private gatherings.
The curfew ends in the evening, as in Uganda and Kenya.
Faced with Europe, Morocco remains in a state of “semi-containment” as in Casablanca, between curfew and strict restrictions. Working-class neighborhoods are tightly sealed off, police checkpoints reappear on the roads.