COVID19, “we are in this Together or are we” a Decolonial Crisis of Locating the Missing People in the Post-Human, South Africa

ABSTRACT

In discussing both decolonial and posthuman conceptual frameworks, the article advocates for putting the ‘human’ back into the humanities. However, most work on decoloniality refuses engagement with the posthuman and the Anthropocene. Similarly, posthumanism barely acknowledges the parallel work in decolonial literature. The posthuman turn is inadequate without acknowledging decolonial literature and decolonial literature is encouraged to expand its analysis into the Anthropocene. This article makes a case for drawing the two terms together. COVID19 produced various categories of ‘missing people’ more vulnerable and economically affected by the lockdown than others. This articles argue against a reactive re-composition of unitary humanity posited as being a ‘together threatened and endangered species’ resulting in a panhuman bond of vulnerability’. Indeed, we are in this together- but we are not one and the same. What is notable from the data is that everyone was affected by COVID19 but not equally so. It is difficult to separate the missing people between those at a biological risk and those at an economic impact because they often were intertwined. The article conceptualises the notion of ‘missing people’ in cultural studies that acknowledges both the decolonial turn and the posthuman turn. The study is delimited to the 21 days of lockdown Level 5 (2020), South Africa. The nation-wide lockdown was enacted in terms of the Disaster Management Act from midnight on Thursday 26 March until midnight on Thursday 16 April (2020), wherein all South Africans had to stay at home.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID19
• missing people
• post-human
• anthropocene
• decolonisation
• cultural studies
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 COVID-19 Timeline 2019–2020 can be found on https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/covid-19-timeline-2019-2020

2 Different lockdown levels and their regulations can be found on https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/infographic-look-back-at-the-different-levels-of-covid-19-lockdowns-in-sa/