The death toll from the virus reported across the continent was lower than in France alone - but when you take to the streets, the reality is different
Photography:
Corona in Africa: How many people actually died from the virus?
// Photo: AFP
While most countries in the world experience corona virus waves with an increase in mortality, there is an entire continent, the continent of Africa, where 54 countries have reported fewer deaths from the corona virus than those who died in France alone.
Does this mean that the corona has hit Africa less than the rest of the world?
This interesting question was attempted by New York Times reporter Ruth McLean in talks with African experts.
McLean notes at the beginning of the article that from the outset epidemiologists claimed that "in Africa the population is younger, there are no older people and therefore the corona will hit the continent less, because older people have already died from other diseases".
But in the opinion of Stephen Helleringer, a demographer who works with a large number of African countries the answer is quite different.
"The countries here do not know who died here and for what reason, if they have information then it is partial. For example in Nigeria in 2017 only 10% of deaths in the country were recorded. That is, families prefer to bury the dead themselves and do not know they should or should report to the authorities. "Only report in the event of a pension, inheritance or family dispute. This is on the part of the families."
"The regime itself is also unable to monitor what is happening and from time to time tries to do surveys to know more or less what the size of the population is but these are very unserious surveys. Call people who have a phone and ask about everyone they know, photograph the neighborhoods and cemeteries from the air but beyond That's why most regimes in Africa just don't know what's really going on with them, "he says.
The registrar of deaths, Abima Agonbida in Lagos, also agrees with this claim and explains: "I have a small and crowded office that people usually do not really come to. Families do not want the paperwork the permit of the regime. I only meet them when they have no choice."
In fact, this reality is also reflected in the information and death records of the UN itself. While in Asia, for example, the UN has information on deaths in 90 percent of cases, even when it comes to underdeveloped countries, in Africa the organization simply does not have information.
Identifying the dead according to colorful invitation ceremonies for funerals
Ruth McLean tried to find out in another way if there had been more deaths on the continent this year and simply walked to the main street in the city of Lagos where coffins are sold.
The photo from the street indicates that there was indeed a mortality wave this year - probably related to the corona virus, although this cannot be proven.
Street vendors knew how to tell that "in June-July there was a huge wave of demand for coffins, but these were simple coffins and not the luxury coffins."
Another method of detecting death waves is the colorful invitations that are disputed in the south of the country for the funerals of older people.
In this area when a person comes in the days of death, the family makes a big funeral and invites all its neighbors to attend the funeral ceremony.
There are usually not many such funerals in a normal year in Africa, however in 2020 there was not a family that did not receive a beautiful and colorful invitation to such a funeral.
Bottom line, in the absence of official information from the authorities, and when the Ebola virus and the measles virus are rampant on the continent, all epidemiologists admit that it is difficult to know how many Africans died from the corona.
However, it is important to note that the World Health Organization predicted in Africa a mortality wave of 3.3 million people and this bleak forecast was apparently falsified.
In this regard, Dorian Job of Médecins Sans Frontières says that the UN's forecast for Africa has been terrible, following this forecast the countries have imposed insane closures here and there have been moves that will hurt for years to come.
But with regard to the plague itself it did not become the talk of the day, did it not?
Hard to know, but probably not as the UN expected.
On the other hand, it is very possible that the virus raged on the continent quietly and continues to strike it with enormous intensity.
For example, a serological survey conducted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, showed inconceivable gaps between the number of deaths reported by authorities and the actual one - 16,000 compared to 477. Of course these are estimates but they show that no official on the continent can really answer this question.
