Podcast: Resisting the Authoritarian Pandemic
In case you missed it, you can catch up on our special live show on Resisting the Authoritarian Pandemic with Bobi Wine, Tundu Lissu and Fadzayi Mahere right here.
And if you want more, you can also read about how the show was interpreted by someone who watched in from Gulu, Uganda.
We thought this was a really important issue to showcase because, as our co-host Farida Nabourema has written, dictators love lockdowns.
Sishuwa Sishuwa, one of our producers, has explained how this has played out in Zambia, where coronavirus has been manipulated by President Edgar Lungu.
Violet Gonda, a member of the advisory board, has argued that the same thing is happening in Zimbabwe, asking whether one of the reasons for the lockdown was that it allowed the government to “push political agendas”.
Two more of our team, Nic Cheeseman and Jeffrey Smith, have also written about the different ways in which leaders have manipulated the coronavirus pandemic, providing an overview of the situation in a number of different countries.
This isn’t just an African phenomenon of course, and they have also written about how this process has played out globally.
From the very start, there has been resistance to this process – and there is still time for you to join in. Civil society groups have shown dynamism despite disruption.
Many organizations found new ways to continue with old campaigns, including advisory board member Vanessa Tsehaye, sustaining their activism against all odds. As Vanessa put it, “Many were worried that the global spotlight on the coronavirus would make our campaign less impactful and urged us to reschedule. However, we still went ahead with it and it was the best decision we could have made”
For example, West Africa’s Centre for Democracy and Development, an organization led by advisory board member Idayat Hassan, has been working hard to explain how we can contain COVID19 misinformation and fake news.
Citizens in South Africa and Kenya and a number of other countries have begun to protest once again in frustration at the economic challenges that they face and their mistreatment by the security forces under lockdown.
For her part, one of our producers, Mantate Mlotshwa brought the Good News – highlighting positive stories from across the continent and around the world in order to sustain morale and avoid defeatism.
Others took a different approach. Gado, one of the great satirists – and a member of our advisory board – has been brilliantly sending up the world’s dictators, in his hard hitting editorial cartoons.
Our future co-host, and another great satirist, Adeola Fayehun, has also been having fun with the performance of African leaders when it comes to COVID19.
Meanwhile a number of organizations and leading activists around the world – including advisory board member Rafael Marques de Morais – have signed A Call to Defend Democracy, arguing that “Democracy is under threat, and people who care about it must summon the will, the discipline, and the solidarity to defend it. At stake are the freedom, health, and dignity of people everywhere.”
And while COVID19 means that there is a pressing need to reorganize and rethink elections and other democratic processes, this also creates the possibility to build back better, introducing new innovations that actually lead to stronger political systems.
For more on how to resist the authoritarian pandemic, make sure that you register for updates and future shows from The Resistance Bureau.