Covid-19 is among the deadliest pandemics the world has experienced in recent history. The African continent has, thus far, fared comparatively well with just under 150,000 confirmed infections and about 5,000 fatalities as of early June 2020.1 Even so, the heavy economic, social, and emotional toll of the pandemic on the continent is already clear, and some analysts estimate that the situation will worsen in the coming months. Given its underresourced health-care systems and lack of social safety nets, Africa's best hope for mitigating the spread of Covid-19 lies in community-based prevention efforts. This will require very strong locally led campaigns of information dissemination, along with community mobilization and sensitization. We contend that Africa's large youth population must play a prominent role as key drivers in the fight against the pandemic. Moreover, we argue for prevention interventions that are germane to communities' social and cultural values in order for them to be fully engrained in their everyday life praxis.
This essay asserts that mitigation tactics should articulate innovative strategies that are suited to local conditions, rather than simply reproducing often incongruent and restrictive strategies from the Global North, such as social and physical distancing, lockdowns, and isolation. The majority of African urban populations live in crowded slums, working in the informal sector. There are numerous examples of how social distancing violations have led to confrontations between people and the police.2
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