Solidarity, Afro-communitarianism, and COVID-19 vaccination

This paper appeals to the Afro-communitarian conceptions of solidarity to think critically about the duty (if any and in what ways) to vaccinate. Barbara Prainsack and Alena Buyx [1] describe solidarity as “enacted commitment to carry the costs (financial, social, emotional, and other contributions) of assisting others with whom a person or persons recognise similarity in a relevant aspect”. In sub-Saharan Africa, one concrete way Africans have enacted this commitment to carry cost is exemplified by the phenomenon of Black tax common in Southern Africa, whereby individuals who are well-off in a family help their indigent relatives.