‘Colonial virus’? Creative arts and public understanding of COVID-19 in Ghana

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debate

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper I examine how responses to COVID-19 by Ghana’s creative arts communities shape public understanding of the pandemic. I focus on comedy, music, textile designs, and murals created between March and August 2020, through frameworks of the social psychology of everyday knowledge and arts and health. The art forms perform three functions: health promotion (songs), improving environ-mental aesthetics (murals), and memorialising (textile designs). Similar to arts-based interventions for HIV and Ebola, Ghanaian artists translate COVID-19 information in ways that connect emotionally, create social awareness, and lay the foundation for public understanding. Artists translate COVID-19 information in ways that connect emotionally, create social awareness, and lay the foundation for public under-standing. Some offer socio-political critique, advocating social protection for poor communities, re-presenting collective memories of past health crises and inequitable policy responses, and theorising about the Western origins of COVID and coloniality of anti-African vaccination programmes. I consider the implications for COVID public health communication and interventions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)401-413
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of the British Academy
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • collective memory
  • coloniality
  • COVID-19
  • creative arts
  • Ebola
  • Ghana
  • HIV
  • public health communication
  • public understanding

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '‘Colonial virus’? Creative arts and public understanding of COVID-19 in Ghana'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this