Patrick Egwu is a Nigerian freelance journalist currently based in Johannesburg, where he is an Open Society Foundation Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand. His works have been published by African Arguments, Ozy, National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report, and other platforms.
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How Christian Migrants in South Africa Battle COVID, Xenophobia
Azubuike Muodum, a Nigerian migrant living in Johannesburg, South Africa, poses for a photo on May 4, 2021. Patrick Egwu/Sojourners.
Azubuike Muodum, a Nigerian migrant living in Johannesburg, South Africa has not had his worst COVID-19 fears realized.
“When the [pandemic] started, I thought it was a disease that is going to kill everyone, more like an end-time plague,” Muodum told Sojourners in May.
Still, the last two years have had challenges. Muodum runs a small-scale restaurant in the central business district of Johannesburg, South Africa; he says the pandemic and subsequent lockdown created a “huge burden” for him and his restaurant. While countries like the United States begin returning to post-pandemic life, Muodum and others who emigrated to South Africa are facing the challenges of a still-spreading COVID-19.
Demolitions in South Africa Leave Several Homeless Amid Pandemic
Image via REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
“I was very scared when I saw them coming with their trucks,” Annie Paul, who was inside her shack on the day of the demolition, said. “Before I could pick up some of my stuff to leave, they had already started pulling the building down and in a matter of minutes, everything was gone. They didn’t allow us to pick anything.”