« Do you also think of any optimistic scenario ? » Asked this very question in a meeting about Angola’s situation during the pandemic, Chloe Buire, a French geographer, offers some thoughts in her scientific blog, Luanda Micro Lab. As a specialist of Angolan urban society, and of Angolan citizens’ mobilisation and empowerment, she reflects on the tools available […]

The untold struggles of foreign nationals working in private security companies during the nationwide lockdown in South Africa Dostin Lakika Dostin Lakika is a Research Associate at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), Wits University, and at the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS-Research). Since the outbreak of coronavirus many countries around the […]

South Africa has recently been afflicted by xenophobic violence and the issue of migrants — mainly from the African continent — is a sensitive one. It is only logical that sociologists and migration specialists have, since March, reflected on the Covid-19 crisis, taking into account the parameter of migrant populations in the pandemic equation. Regards […]

Since the beginning of the lockdown in South Africa, the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) has launched a general survey on the effects of Covid-19 in the country and the awareness of the pandemic among South Africans. “We are appealing to all South Africans to participate in this survey. The research team is adopting the BiNu […]

Exceptionally, we propose here two contributions in French, which are also an invitation to take a step out of the Southern African situation for a while. These contributions revolve around the following questions: — Can we use history to understand the current Covid-19 epidemic? — How can historians think what is new, unprecedented, when their disciplinary reflex […]

A few weeks ago, Sean Mfundza Muller, a Se nior Lecturer in Economics, discussed the impact on South African society of the direct and indirect consequences that would be induced by a strict lockdown and the cessation of economic activities. His text highlights the extreme complexity of these current issues, the difficulty of political decision-making, […]

The pandemic which, after other parts of the world, is beginning to hit southern Africa is currently mobilising medical researchers on the front line. However, researchers from human and social sciences have and will have much to say about the social, political, and economic dimensions of the crisis triggered by the expansion of Covid-19. IFAS-Research […]