Africa is not in sight but is facing a long coronavirus battle

  I spent the last evening following a handful of South African policemen patrolling the dark, narrow streets of Alexandra Township on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
  It was an uncertain experience.
  Every minute or so, the police stopped their vans, jumped and - as the people around them started booming and running away - began to chase more and more civilians, it seemed to me, behind their vehicle before removing one or two of them.
  One officer was not wearing a mask, an official explained.
  Another would probably be selling banned cigarettes.
  Some people, perhaps, had been very close, although it was difficult to tell in the dark.  And so much more.

  Lack of trust in the state
  The whole process felt arbitrary and frightening - a clear abuse of power.
  But in the days that followed I began to think differently of that night in Alexandra;  Not to take into account the behavior of the police, but to take into account the hard-educated reactions of the citizens of the township.
  To run.  And then to politely submit if caught.
  It is, I think, a clear manifestation of vulnerabilities - the behavior of the people, instinctively, powerless to challenge the power of the state.
  I have seen it often here, in South Africa and other parts of the continent - to a large extent.

  Something similar applies to hospitals as well.
  I have heard - first and second hand - there are many stories about people whose relatives were admitted to an unknown public hospital with "abdominal pain" or "just a cold" and who were suddenly pronounced dead in a matter of days.
  In other words, many people have learned to pay attention to the police and medical profession that it is not for liberation, but something more nunsant.