COVID-19 across Africa: Colonial Hangovers, Racial Hierarchies, and Medical Histories Author(s): Helen Tilley Source: Journal of West African History , Fall 2020, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Fall 2020), pp. 155-179 Published by: Michigan State University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/jwestafrihist.6.2.0155 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Michigan State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of West African History This content downloaded from 35.8.11.2 on Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:37:56 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Conversation VVVV COVID- 19 across Africa: Colonial Hangovers, Racial Hierarchies, and Medical Histories Helen Tilley Northwestern University “L’Afrique n’est pas un laboratoire. Africa is not a testing lab.” Didier Drogba, Twitter, April 2, 2020 “The surge against clinical trials is paradoxical, phantasmagorical and instructive. Africa is not, directly or indirectly, the preferred target of clinical trials to date.” Fred Eboko, Le Monde, April 8, 2020 Abstract In the early months of the COVID- 19 pandemic, few journalists or scholars in Europe and North America paid much attention to how people or governments were responding to SARS- coV- 2 anywhere in Africa.