By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Riding The Storm: The Untold Story of Africa’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic by Toni Kan; Narrative Landscape Press, Lagos, Nigeria; 2024; 246pp
The unforeseen menace struck as a monstrous plague threatening to wipe out humankind in one fell swoop. The COVID-19 pandemic was a horrendous global killer, and the projection was that Africa stood to pay the heaviest price. Somehow Africa survived the epidemic in a wondrous manner. The award-winning prolific writer Toni Kan bears eloquent witness to this survival in the timeous book Riding The Storm: The Untold Story of Africa’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Toni Kan’s Riding The Storm is predicated on the African proverb, to wit: “Until the lion tells the story, the hunter will always be the hero.” There is also the other proverb, also from Africa: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”
In unity, Africa wins. That’s the essence of Toni Kan’s offering for he boldly states, by way of introduction: “I was born to write that book.”
Serendipity and coincidence worked crucially in yoking together the writer and the book Riding The Storm, as Toni Kan reiterates a quote that Mr. Strive Masiyiwa, the lionized Zimbabwean-born billionaire, entrepreneur and philanthropist, attributed to the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, thusly: “Coincidence is God’s way of being anonymous!”
Riding The Storm by Toni Kan comes highly recommended with a foreword by the President of South Africa, Mr. Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, who served as the African Union (AU) Chairperson in the beginning of the COVID-19 year of 2020.
President Ramaphosa writes in his foreword: “This book chronicles our journey – the urgency, the sacrifices, the disappointments, and the victories. It is a testament to what is possible when Africa stands united. As you read, remember that even in crisis, we found strength in our shared humanity. This book is not just a record; it is a beacon of hope and a tribute to Africa’s indomitable spirit. The success of Africa’s COVID-19 response should not have surprised the world. The people of Africa have demonstrated time and again, their resilience and ability to work together to overcome even the greatest challenge.”
Whilst acknowledging that “it’s taken a continent to write this chronicle of Africa’s deliberate, intentional, co-ordinated and strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Toni Kan specially cites a quartet of three men and one woman as being pivotal to the cause.
There is a bonus chapter at the end of Riding The Storm entitled “COVED-19 Quartet: An Oral History” in which the four principals eloquently bare their minds, as indicated on the cover of the book thus: “with authorised interviews from Strive Masiyiwa, John Nkengasong, Benedict Oramah and Vera Songwe.”
In the words of Toni Kan, “Three men and one woman – Dr John Nkengasong, a world-renowned virologist and pioneer head of Africa’s CDC; Professor Benedict Oramah, academic and president and chairman of the board of directors, Afreximbank; Mr Strive Masiyiwa, billionaire businessman and philanthropist; and Dr Vera Songwe, economist and head of UN Economic Commission for Africa during Covid-19. These highly accomplished individuals were key to Africa’s response to COVID-19.”
Before COVID-19, there was the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) which Nigeria effectively tackled in 2014-2016. Toni Kan reveals that he had “a sneak peek of Chikwe and Vivianne Ihekweazu’s book, Imperfect Storm, an account of Nigeria’s fight against COVID-19 through the eyes of a former head of the Nigeria CDC.”
At bottom, Riding The Storm is a heartfelt human story. The sweep of COVID-19 started out as “Whispers of Wuhan” from way out in China, and then landed on the continent of Africa and all over the world. It was on February 12, 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland that the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom introduced the official name of the disease as: “COVID-19. I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine. COVID-19.”
Given the grave danger posed by the pandemic to the world at large, Masiyiwa called up his friend at Afrexim, Prof Oramah, and pointedly stated: “We have to save Africa.”
In Cairo, Egypt on March 24, 2024, the news hit the waves: “Afreximbank Announces $3-Billion Facility to Cushion Impact of COVID-19.” According to Oramah, “Besides its worrying effect on human life, the pandemic is projected to cost the global economy up to $1 trillion, and to result in a significant 0.4% decline in global GDP growth, which is expected to drop from 2.9% in 2019 to 2.5% in 2020… A rapid and impactful financial response is required to avert a major crisis in Africa.”
Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, feared the worst for Africa, stressing: “When I saw what China had to do to isolate such enormous parts of their population, my first thought was Africa. How in the world are they going to deal with this? I have been in townships all over Africa and slums.”
“Somehow we survive…” as the great South African poet wrote in one of his poems.
Toni Kan’s Riding The Storm is a quintessential testament to the great African survival. He harps on the need for vigilance, going forward: “Ebola and COVID-19 were warnings and they have given us an opportunity to learn about pandemics and how to tackle them. All that is left is for us to plan before the next big one becomes reality.”
This pan-African book towers never to be forgotten. Toni Kan has hit the bullseye in Riding The Storm.
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author
