By the time our 27th edition went to bed in February 2020, no one could have envisioned that the world would shortly thereafter go into a a dreadful lockdown. It has been a season of fears, panic and doubts. Fear of getting caught in the web of the coronavirus. Panic that the lockdown would lead to famine in some places, that goods and supplies would dry up.
It was quite a scene seeing people stock up on toilet paper as though the World Health Organisation was declaring a pandemic of cholera. As we write doubts persist as to the origin of the coronavirus.
Most people agree that COVID-19 has zoonotic roots. Others speculate that it could have been fabricated by some evil genetic engineer.
In the early days of the pandemic I co-authored with Juan Lopez, an old-time friend and comrade, an old-time friend and comrade, an open-ended chapbook titled ‘Who Benefits from Corona – A breakfast with Mr Gates’. In that book we hint at the business and political manipulations that are embedded in the responses to the pandemic, including the pursuit of vaccines and the prediction that millions of Africans would die from the disease.
The pandemic has offered us the opportunity to strengthen the social webs of support that sustain humanity, and which must not be disrupted by contrived policy measures. We hope that African civil society will unite and closely monitor COVID-19 pandemic. There are reports of a massive anti-GMOs march we led in Lagos and a biosafety conference we hosted in Abuja just before the lockdown.
We also serve you a pointed letter to the Ethiopian Government written by one of Africa’s foremost biosafety experts, Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher. He warns the government not to toe the pathway of agricultural genetic engineering.
Expectedly, there is poetry and highlights of books that you should read. We also share some of the feedback that we have received from readers. Keep them coming!
Until Victory!
Nnimmo Bassey
Download and read Eco-Instigator #28 here.
