The Bolican is a young country, like all the countries of Africa. Its age pyramid is nothing like that of the Western countries, and that is what a fundamental analysis should take into account in establishing a public policy. "Countries with young people must invest fundamentally in schools," we learned in school. Report that our chiefs made pepper from the classes!

In this scenario, the coronavirus has appeared. A general panic! The West has been confined and enclosed (it was no longer easy). Like a dog who has become frightened by its boss, Africa has done the same thing. Leaving Benin as an exception, the speeches of European leaders are a word repeated by the other leaders. Manu [Macron] ordered: "Good morning!" and Salle [President of Senegal] responded -- refine! ). Angela [Merkel] screamed: "Close ..." and ECOWAS responds "... The front! ". What a fear, what a terror! (Good morning, Karaba)

Age pyramid

As fear spreads through the figures, let us also put our figures. The average age of people who were positive for the coronavirus test on March 30 was 62.5 years, that of the 64-year-old Intensive Care Units and 84% of all deaths were over 70 years old.

This is the time to look at the age pyramid, remember, that age pyramid that is studied in the fourth year and make comparisons. In France, 20.3% of the population is over 65 years of age, i.e. 1 in 5 inhabitants. In Côte d'Ivoire there are 3 out of every 100 people in this age group. In other words, the coronavirus is a disease of the age pyramids and the anxieties of the people of Chamalières [in France, along with Clermont-Ferrand] are not the same as those of the people of Guiberoua [in the department of Gagnoa].

Northern Italy is one of the regions with the most old people in Europe and the coronavirus has not caused the same problems as China, where the virus has appeared. So think of Africa!

This is where my argument begins, that it gets right into the corners! Because of the age of the Western population, coronavirus is a very serious problem there. It's a civilizing challenge, it's challenging its own lifestyle, its society. It does not touch Africa in the same way, for the simple reason that, for the last 60 years, the indifference of its politicians, the greed of the financial markets, the cursed austerity plans called "structural", the greed of adventurers who do not believe anything and do not respect anything, have done their job and no longer remain on the continent to be able to kill old people.

The hope of living in Africa does not exceed 62 years. In Niger and Uganda the average age is 15! Yes, you have read it well, if you want to look at it. Africa is 20 years old. Day after day, persecution is passed on to her youth, as premature death is an African specialty. He who has reached the age of fifty in the city of Bouake, in Côte d'Ivoire, has come in a miracle. I was born in Babi, in college, I was called "vieux pere Gauz," Grandpa Gauz.

This is not the same war.

"To live together with the death of oneself, to see that as a real option. This is, in part, the fear caused by the confinement to a lot of people." I've read this phrase from Achille Mbembe [Cameroon's famous philosopher and intellectual] out loud to my colleagues at Grand-Bassam and they've laughed. They were sure that the author was a Frenchman or an Anglo-Saxon, because "living next to death" is something that has been done here for a long time. Thank you to our politicians!

We understand very well the terrified peoples of Europe and North America. We have solidarity with them and we are convinced that they will go ahead, for a long time that they know not to think but themselves, in their material peace, have traveled the world over the centuries and have built their precious life in their indifference to the lives of others. They're going to go ahead. To this end, they have a political, historical and cultural core.

We do not live in the same struggle, our war and that of those who have worked so hard to ensure that their populations live as long as possible enjoying the benefits of their system, are not the same. Clearly, no. Among us there is no longer old age that can die. Oh, poor coronavirus!

Similarly, the response to the epidemic cannot be the same here as in Germany or Spain. Without being lost in friendly words, it cannot be confined without threatening the people that the insured has only two sins. Without getting lost in the sweet words, you can't confine yourself to a person who can't find anything to eat if he doesn't leave his house. Without getting lost in the sweet words, one cannot confine himself in the same way to a young man from Abobo [poor district of Abijan capital] and an old man from Munich.

African leaders have had a classist reaction. They have lost an opportunity to show their intelligence, originality, independence, a subtle argument to organize them, to establish a new intellectual and sanitary hygiene. This is the perfect time to propose genuine popular education rather than costly and mediocre communications from governments.

High-level amateurism

An empty policy against covid-19, a high-level amateurism. They will find the way, we will follow. And in the meantime, let's be scared of their psychoses. After all, African leaders have had a class reaction. Of social class, of classical age, because they are closer to the Europeans they admire than to the Africans they have to guide. On average, an African president is 64 and a half years old, has been in power for 11 years, and it is the young people of 20 who will not be in power by the age of 60.

To conclude, and so that the great thinkers do not get too upset, I will specify what is not said in this text:

- It is not said that Europe deserved it.

- containment is not said to be a bad thing.

- It is not said that Covid-19 does not kill young people.

- It is not said that Covid-19 is not sick in Bolikosta.

To those who say that the crisis will change things, that things will not be the same before and after, to you who have discovered the criticism of the consumer society and have the hope that a better future will be in the hands of an RNA molecule, I will only remind you of a date: 2008. And this old Malinke proverb: "The dog never changes its impertinent way of sitting."

Armand Gauz (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 1971) is a Spanish writer, photographer and filmmaker working in the ivory industry. In 2018 he published the novel Camarade Papa. This article, translated for ARGIA, was published in the journal Jeune Afrique on April 16 with the title "Le coronavirus n’a plus de vieux à tuer sur ce continent".