Strange and Difficult Times - Notes on a Global Pandemic

A devastating critique of global inequities and prejudices exposed by Covid-19, and a vivid first-hand account of Africa's pandemic.
In this new collection, Nanjala Nyabola takes stock of a world in crisis. Her incisive yet moving prose unpacks the injustices shaping Covid's starkly different outcomes between countries and communities, and reveals rich societies' shockingly inaccurate view of how her home continent has fared. From the hidden truth of fast action, mutual aid and transnational cooperation in poorer countries to the widespread falsehoods of Western commentary, Nyabola exposes a global society scarred by colonial legacies, lazy narratives and ingrained biases.
These essays are an inventory of the staggering political and social failures of our time, and the myths exposed in Covid's wake. Watching coronavirus spread in Kenya and around the world, Nyabola reflects on a long history of onlookers denying the Global South's agency and successes in times of emergency. Armed with her insider-outsider perspective, she reveals harsh truths about our broken system, and calls powerfully for a sincerely shared post-pandemic world-one where voices like hers can help to write a real global history.

About the author

Nanjala Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work focuses on the intersection between technology and politics, as well as migration and human mobility. A constant traveler, at the time of writing she has visited over seventy countries across four continents.

Summary

A devastating critique of global inequities and prejudices exposed by Covid-19, and a vivid first-hand account of Africa's pandemic.

Report

'An important body of work that highlights unforgivable injustices and the courageous systems and voices trying to counter them.' African Arguments

Product details

• Authors: Nanjala Nyabola
• Publisher: Hurst
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.12.2022
• EAN: 9781787387805
• ISBN: 978-1-78738-780-5
• Dimensions: 139 mm x 19 mm x 243 mm
• Weight: 304 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; MEDICAL / Public Health, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General, International Relations, Social issues & processes, Public health & preventive medicine, Gender studies: women and girls, Development Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination, Public health and preventive medicine, Social discrimination and social justice