Even countries without a single known Ebola case are being hit. Some west African nations have started seeing large cancellations in their growing tourism industries. A number of regional and international seminars and conferences have been postponed in the region, though the host countries may be miles from the areas where Ebola has been found.
Kenya and South Africa – countries further from the Ebola epicenter than much of Europe – are experiencing huge losses in their own tourism industries. The South Korean national carrier, Korean Air, said the suspension of its direct flight between Seoul and Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, was due to Ebola. This week, the United States national basketball team cancelled a trip to Senegal.
Africans traveling in Europe, Asia or the Americas are under more scrutiny than other travelers, who may have had more recent contact with Ebola areas than most Africans.
During the recent U.S.-African Leaders Summit held in Washington DC, it was uncomfortable to note the debate amongst American pundits on prime time TV and radio about the risk of African delegates bringing Ebola with them. The following week, Nigeria withdrew its national team from the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, following discrimination against the athletes, who were quarantined and barred from training alongside other participants. On 27 September, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti announced that Uzbekistan’s Public Health Ministry has asked the organizing committee of a wrestling championship in Tashkent to keep out west African athletes..
In western Europe, including Spain, Italy, Germany and France, incidents of racially-tinged Ebola paranoia have surfaced.These challenges are accompanied a vacuum of a strong pan-African voice against the elevated fears of Africans exporting Ebola.
An exception has been the steady, determined voice of the African Development Bank Group president Dr. Donald Kaberuka, whose organization recently made a $60 million grant to help fight the disease. He personally visited the Sierra Leone and Liberia, and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, thanking him during a meeting in her office, said, “Your visit is a strong signal” against isolation.
African citizens and the African Diaspora are beginning to raise their voices and discussing ways to pressure their political leaders to lift the quarantine imposed on affected countries. If the campaign is not effective enough, the entire continent may soon feel quarantined.
* Mahtar Ba is executive chair, co-founder and former president of AllAfrica Global Media. He and other prominent Africans and media leaders have launched a GoPetition “Citizens Call to Action on Ebola”.
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