Unraveling Africa’s “mystery”: “afropessimism” as the hegemonic discourse in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This research focuses on the performance of African countries with regard to public health policies in the context of the covid-19 pandemic (2020-2021). The main argument is that the response of African countries to the pandemic and the low number of deaths on the African continent in general made explicit a contradiction in the hegemonic discourse regarding African states’ capacity to act effectively in the face of the threat of the virus. The theoretical framework includes post-structuralist and post-colonial approaches of International Relations and the methodology consists of discourse analysis.