Life in an infected
Ebolacountry
EtC: Could you explain how the ebola outbreak
started and evolved in Sierra Leone?
The crisis itself started in Guinea. And as you may
know Sierra Leone and Guinea share a very porous
border. Porous in the sense
that these borders do not lend
themselves to conventional
means of crossing. So people
just crisscross between each
other and most of the people
living in the border region have
relatives on the other side
of the border. At some point
someone from the far eastern
town of Kailahun came back
from a burial in Guinea and
got ill. That is how it started
spreading.
of the ebola disease. First of all, we don’t have
modern facilities of attending to burials. From a
western perspective, you would expect that when
somebody dies, he will be taken to a mortuary,
cleaned-up and prepared for burial.
Here, in most parts of the country,
except the capital city where you
have more modern facilities, relatives
take the responsibility to wash
the body and prepare them for the
afterlife. Sometimes this involves
rituals in which family members wash
themselves with water that they have
used to wash the deceased. In Guinea
and Liberia the burials are very similar
because the three affected countries
in this region have similar cultures,
practices and ethnic groups.
EtC: Do you think these funeral practices have
contributed to the spread of ebola?
Which challenges have you encountered in
your daily life since the outbreak?
“Poverty and
deprivation
make this
kind of disease
thrive”
Certainly. That is the major source of the spread
For this article, the
Exchange to Change
team interviewed
Henry Mbawa
who obtained his
Master’s degree in
Governance and
Development at
IOB in 2007 and
the Province of
Antwerp Prize in the
same year. Since
his graduation he
obtained his PhD
at the University of
Leeds and is now working for the Ministry
of Justice in Sierra Leone. He paints a vivid
but nuanced picture of how he and his fellow
citizens are experiencing the Ebola epidemic.
I have encountered different challenges. You get,
for instance, restrictions on the social interactions
you have with other family members. You are
advised not to touch and have intimate contact
with people and that affects the relationship with
close family members. We no longer socialize
in gatherings and events. I used to exercise on
Sundays along the beach with friends and we play
football together, but that has been banned as
well. These days you even need special permission
to organize a wedding. Professionally, it has
affected our work as certain activities could not be
implemented due to travel restrictions and a ban
on gatherings. These are ways in which ebola has
affected me, but the wider population might have to
deal with more serious challenges.
EtC: Could you explain why?
This disease is serious and intense because poverty
and deprivation make this kind of disease thrive.
This is a region where over 70% of the people live in
poverty. They share communal facilities like toilets,
go to overcrowded markets and have a poor health
and sanitation infrastructure. Whole districts have
been in quarantine and these are the same districts
where you have these very bad health facilities.
Additionally, agriculture remains restricted, while
tourism and businesses continue to stagnate with a
consequential effect on the economy. These are all
areas where employment opportunities are created
for people of the lower brackets of society.
Thus, this disease has genocidal effects on the
poor. It is more severe on people who are poor
and illiterate. Middle class people and others may
be able to protect themselves. They share their
house with fewer people, have better health and
sanitation facilities and have a good understanding
and capacity to navigate their way in the health
system.
EtC: Do you think ebola will have a long
lasting impact on your country?
Yes, I think so, but these long term effects could
be both positive and negative. On the negative
side, ebola has torn apart social interactions
which will have long term impact on cultural and
social interactions. Our cultural practices have
been unravelled and questioned. The outbreak
has also set the country back for many years of
developmental efforts that were meant to improve
the lives of its people. Funding for road construction
or schools is very tight as a lot of funds are now
being diverted to ebola. Another long term effect
is the impact on the image of the country. Ebola
will also leave a stigma, just like what happened
after the release of the ‘Blood Diamond’ movie.
During my period in Antwerp there was a lot of
stigmatization and people thought that I was just
coming from a war zone. This pessimistic view of
Sierra Leone and the whole of Africa is now being
reinforced and will have a negative impact on
investment in the long run.
On the positive side, it is good that more questions
are being asked about practices that do not lend
themselves well to modern forms of hygiene and
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sanitation. As such, the most striking effect of
ebola is that it has shone a light on the weak health
infrastructure within these countries and the wider
issue of strengthening governance institutions to
deliver services to
its citizens.
“Ebola’s long
term effects
could be both
positive and
negative”
The Liberian
President Sirleaf
said that it is no
coincidence that
ebola has taken
hold in three
fragile states,
all battling
to overcome
the effect of
interconnected
wars. Do you agree?
She has captured the very nature of the disease.
These three states are former failed states, but they
remain very fragile. In a region where people are
coming out of long periods of war and instability,
government institutions remain weak to respond to
these crises.
However, what we cannot excuse is the failure of
leadership. Leaders should take more responsibility
to push for effective governance and rebuild these
institutions in their countries. Thus, the excuse of
state fragility should not be overstretched.
EtC: What do you expect from the
international community?
I am more of a skeptic than a fan when it comes
to the expectations we heap on the international
community, simply because there is no single
international community. Most people accuse
them of coming quite late, but that is because
go vernments react based on the local public
opinion. As long as they don’t see trucks of refugees
coming towards Europe, people won’t have the
sympathy to act and the media won’t pay attention
to these countries.
By now, public opinion changed in most European
countries and they are coming with all their
sympathy to help ‘poverty-stricken Africans’. But
I do not have too much faith in the international
community when it comes to things like this.
Indeed, their interventions have helped to some
extent to coordinate the response, but it took long
before anyone noticed us.
EtC: Do you have any message you want to
send to the IOB community?
Ebola is a serious disease. This can happen to any
country, although we might be more vulnerable
because of our weak systems. Much as we all feel
terrified and frightened about this serious disease,
we hope and pray that at the end, this
disease will not serve to stigmatise Sierra
Leone or Africa in general.
Lisa Popelier
The Ministry of Health declared a 90-day alert on
August 11, 2014, which was later extended for a few
more months. In August, it also deployed medical
teams to check people suspected of carrying the
virus in 25 ports. The airport is currently checking
temperatures with a hand-held thermal scanner
capable of measuring temperature without touching
the body.
There is no direct flight service between Bangladesh
and the major Ebola-affected countries – Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea. Most of the travelers from
these countries arrive in Bangladesh via the Middle
East or other countries.
Nowadays, the urban educated people are a little
concerned about Ebola and it is not perceived among
citizens as a ‘threat’ for Bangladesh. Though the
media and some health experts are vocal about
the issue. For example, the Daily Star on October
13 published a report by referring to the remarks
of Dr Saif Ullah Munshi, associate professor of
Virology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical
University, who said, “There must be very
rigorous monitoring at the ports. A single mistake
can cause disaster.”
Sensible preventive measures: there is an ongoing campaign to sensitize people about the disease
and some elementary measures that can be adopted to prevent the disease from spreading (for
example, regular hand washing with detergent soap) and efforts have been carried out to track and
record potential Ebola cases among passengers coming to Burundi once they arrive at the Bujumbura
International Airport.
There is, however, still a long way to go in terms of putting in place a real health unit, well-staffed and
equipped enough to deal with probable cases and I’m afraid that any single case would be a very big
challenge to our weak health system.
There is apparently a weak awareness among the general public about Ebola as people continue
to think that those affected countries in West Africa are relatively far away from Burundi. Life
goes on normally, which is somehow good because it’s not productive to create an unjustified
panic, but I think there is a need for a constant alertness by the population in general and the
government in particular to make sure that any case is managed efficiently if and when it occurs.
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