Cultural fight against Coronavirus: The Role of our Traditional Leaders

The Covid-19 virus is a vicious new organism that is ravaging communities all over the world causing The World Health Organization to declare it a Pandemic.

There are all kinds of social media hype adding to an enormous load of garbage news. Legitimate medical organizations worldwide are working tirelessly to arrest the menace of the disease.

It is reasonable to leave the clinical/medical aspect of the fight against C19 to the medical community but there is one area that falls within the purview of all of us especially those social leaders capable of influencing our behaviours. That one area where our Traditional Leaders especially the chiefs can make a difference is called SOCIAL DISTANCING.

The viciousness of C19 can be appreciated by looking at the speed of its spread. Around January 23, the city of Wuhan reported 444 confirmed cases of C19. 7 days later the number had jumped more than 10 times to 4903. By February 6 ( a week later) the number of cases was 22,112.

In Italy, it started with 62 cases and a week later jumped to 888 and after another week increased to 4,636. It seems that once C19 takes residence in an area the spread is almost 10 times every week. If not well thought out no government can effectively support the fight against C19.

This is why we need our Traditional Leaders as well as churches to “join hands” in promoting Social Distancing. Social distancing involves all aspect of limiting the gathering of people such as in funerals, churches, parties etc.

This is the time to re-examine some of our habits and cultural norms in conformity with the fight against C19. We can learn from the experience in China which is now able to exercise some control over the spread of the disease in great part because it demanded self-quarantine and in some situations forcibly separated suspected cases.

The nature of The China government made some of these demands easy to implement whereas in our form of government demanding/enforcing behaviour changes could be problematic.

The influence that our chiefs have on us can be well utilized in these challenging times. For example, announcing to their subjects to suspend funeral celebrations for some time would be better coming from the chiefs than from the government. Currently, our visionary president in his Independence message to the nation encouraged a new way of our social interactions. Limiting handshakes is an attempt in the right direction alright and we need our social and traditional leaders to emphasize that.

Limiting social gathering is even more impactful. We don’t know enough about C19 to think that the climate and other ecological factors will spare Ghana. We cannot be complacent. If we don’t do our social responsibilities by helping President Nana Akufo Addo, the $100 million pledged for C19 fight in Ghana will go nowhere.

This is the time in Ghana we need our Traditional Leaders to join the government in fighting this enemy which can wipe out an entire generation. I am not proposing that every chief or church come up with their own way of Social Distancing, rather we need engagement with The MOH so we all dance to the same tune and follow their guidance.

Hopefully, this article can stimulate a healthy non-political discussion to combat the common enemy.