The COVID-19 Pandemic Response and the New Era of Austerity in Africa

Abstract Since 2020, Africa has experienced two severe external economic shocks: the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the war in Ukraine. These events have ushered in what economists call a new era of austerity, which has been called Structural Adjustment 2.0. This article contends that the major cause of the economic distress following the COVID-19 experience was not the disease itself but the policy response. This response was designed for high-income countries with high medical capacity, low housing densities, and existing models of social protection. However, in an African setting, the policy did not follow scientific protocols and quickly moved towards neocolonial tropes where external institutions shaped policy priorities and outcomes to the detriment of African societies. It was soon clear that these policies were of questionable benefit in areas of high-density housing and that they could not feasibly be sustained without enormous hardship. The article provides new data based on research primarily from Angola, Nigeria, and Uganda: it argues that since scholars have largely failed to address the role of the COVID-19 policy response in Africa’s new era of austerity, this negative human and socioeconomic outcome requires rethinking the discursive and conceptual priorities of the discipline of African Studies.