For most South Africans, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the chance to put on new clothes and party through the night.
But the omicron variant of the coronavirus has put a damper on the feeling of anticipation and the frenzy which usually precedes this day.
Smangele Zulu from Soweto said that originally she had exciting plans for the holiday, but they were thwarted by omicron.
“For me it’s a black Christmas because we don’t have anything. It’s just poverty. COVID makes it worse,” she said, calling for caution.
“It would be fair for us to stay at home, so that we minimize the number of infections.”
Restaurants are deserted in Soweto, Johannesburg, during the latest lockdown
Many ignoring Christmas
Like many others, Nhlanganiso Zikode decided to completely ignore the approaching holiday. In 2020, he had planned to go out with friends and have the celebration of a lifetime. But, at the time, reality struck in the form of stricter restrictions when the delta variant started to spread.
With omicron also spreading like a veld fire this year, Zikode said he will not waste his time planning ahead.
“I will see what to do on the day,” he told DW. “You see this pandemic? Hey, it’s killing us!”
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Neighborhood Christmas decorations
Adejoke Fasubaa lives in the outskirts of Lagos and has lovingly decorated her balcony for Christmas. Last year, she decorated the whole building but this year the landlord didn’t have enough money. She believes “the neighborhood should make its own decoration statement, especially at this time of year.”
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Christmas trees on the equator
Normally, Efficiency Igwe just sells stationery in his small shop in Abuja’s Wuse Market. But during the run-up to Christmas, artificial Christmas trees and tinsel decorations are on offer as well. “Trade is brisk,” he said. “Nigerians are buying just as much as last year. It’s as if there is no recession.”
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
‘White Christmas’ and hot weather
Nigeria’s department stores stock all the trappings of a yuletide winter landscape starting the last week of November. Fake snow, ornaments and piles of tinsel are strewn around the premises, sparkling in the artificial lighti as ‘White Christmas ‘ blares through the loudspeakers. All this while outside, hot, dry and dusty trade wind are blowing.
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Christmas shopping during a recession
Even though times are hard, Nigerians are not scrimping on Christmas decorations. The price for artificial trees starts around 80 euros ($83). This supermarket sells almost every seasonal accessory – Santa Claus costumes included. Local tailors also report that business is booming as everybody wants new clothes for the holidays.
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Sweet Christmas
Supermarket shelves are well stocked. There’s no shortage of marzipan potatoes or of chocolate Santas. With a clientele of expatriates and cosmopolitan Nigerians, shops are now selling more traditionally European Christmas goodies.
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Santa and the big corporations
During the Christmas season, big corporations don’t just step up their billboard campaigns, they also distribute free groceries and small gifts. An Indonesian noodle company has been holding Christmas parties for some 100,000 schoolchildren and their teachers since 2005. The festivities are held in six cities complete with noodles, quizzes and essay competitions.
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Packed churches
Nigeria’s Muslim and Christian communities are almost the same size and the country is considered one of the most religious in the world. People flock to churches during Christmas time. This church in Akowonjo, a semi-urban community in Lagos State, is always packed on New Year’s Eve with worshipers ending the old year and beginning the new on a spiritual note.
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Abuja: “Center of Unity”
Nigeria’s capital Abuja has adopted the slogan “Center of Unity.” With 800,000 inhabitants with a range of ethnic backgrounds and faiths living peacefully side by side, the theme of unity is an apt choice for the city. Binta Babajo and Diana Ogunmola are of different faiths but do not let religious conflicts enter their lives. “We are neighbors, we celebrate together” they said.
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
Record-breaking carol singers
The Akwa Ibom Christmas Carols Festival is a huge annual event in Nigeria. In December 2015, it made it into the Guiness Book of World Records when 25,272 carol singers participated in what the organizers describe on their website as a “glittering carnival of song, dance, worship and fun.”
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A sample of Christmas cheer from Nigeria
LEDs and generators
Victoria Island is the main business and financial hub in Lagos. David Eshioke takes care of Zenith Bank’s Christmas lighting. This means that he has to switch on the generator at regular intervals. “This year, I’m doing this job for the third time. It’s worth it,” he said.
Author: Gwendolin Hilse
Economy is suffering
More than just Christmas celebrations have been affected by omicron. Shaka Zulu makes and sells a variety of products adorned with cow skin on Vilakazi Street in Soweto, Johannesburg. The street is frequented by tourists who come to see the house where South Africa’s freedom icon Nelson Mandela once lived.
Zulu told DW that business was starting to get better earlier this year, when omicron suddenly struck a few weeks ago. There are no more tourists now.
“Things are bad. Two, three weeks, four weeks, a month, five weeks without making a sale. Nothing!” he complained. “You can’t make a simple sale.”
Shaka Zulu makes and sells a variety of products adorned with cow skin on Vilakazi Street in Soweto
Not scared of COVID
Thabiso Mbongo, a football fanatic who plays in the township leagues of Soweto, isn’t scared of COVID.
He believes that the coronavirus doesn’t exist, and described omicron as a scare tactic by the government which is trying to make people behave themselves over the festive season.
But because most of his friends fear the virus, he has decided to do a low-key Christmas celebration.
“As you can see, we are not using any mask. I will be me. Follow my heart as always. I will be with my family,” he said.
Those who are vaccinated seem to be gearing up for a more joyful Christmas than the unvaccinated.
“Personally, I’m not afraid of corona anymore. Maybe it’s because the hype has gone down or that a lot of people around me have been vaccinated. I have taken my second dose and I feel that I’m safe from it,” said Sithele Mazwi, an administrator at a private company in Johannesburg.
Relief for the vaccinated
With a mask over her nose and mouth and sanitizer in her hand, Mazwi’s daughter, Zamampondo Mkhaliphi, said her Christmas celebrations had already started.
“Now that life is sort of normal, the exciting things that I’m doing are hanging out with my family, travelling, having braais [barbecue parties — Editor’s note] and everything. The reason I’m not afraid of the coronavirus anymore is because I had it and I got vaccinated and I’m feeling so much better,” she told DW.
According to the World Health Organization, hardly a month after first being described by scientists in South Africa and Botswana, the new omicron variant has now been reported in over 88 countries worldwide. In South Africa, daily infections are averaging at more than 10,000.
Edited by: Cristina Krippahl
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Tanzania’s COVID-19 U-turn
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanzania’s then President John Magufuli declared his country “coronavirus-free” thanks to the power of God. But when he died in March, his successor, Samia Suluhu Hassan, reversed this policy of denial. She set up a COVID task force, launched a vaccine drive and had her photograph taken getting the jab.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Making WTO history
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was voted in as the director-general of the World Trade Organization in March, becoming the first woman and the first African to head the body. A global finance expert, Okonjo-Iweala was formerly the chair of the board of GAVI, the vaccine alliance, and twice served as Nigeria’s finance minister.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Chad’s covert coup
Chad’s Idriss Deby, seen here casting his vote, had just been reelected for a sixth presidential term when he was shot and killed in April during clashes with rebels. His rule was marked by human rights abuses, corruption and nepotism. After his death, army generals installed his son Mahamat as the country’s transitional leader, in what many call a “dynastic coup.”
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Coups, coups and more coups
Mamady Doumbouya of Guinea is just one of the military leaders who forcibly took power in 2021. Earlier this year, Mali’s military staged its second coup in nine months. In Sudan, armed forces booted civilian leaders from a power-sharing agreement and declared a state of emergency in October, triggering mass protests.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Caught by surprise
When Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo erupted in May, hundreds of thousands of people living at the foot of the volcano suddenly had to flee. More than 3,000 homes were reduced to ashes. The observatory charged with running an early warning system said the government failed to provide sufficient funding to monitor Nyiragongo.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Joint operations in Mozambique
Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, (center left) visits Rwandan troops who joined the fight against Islamists in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province. Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, (center right) praised the “solidarity” of Rwandan forces. Soldiers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are also taking part in the joint operation.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Civilians suffer in Ethiopia’s civil war
In Ethiopia, hopes are fading of reaching a ceasefire before the end of the year between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigray fighters. The civil war, which started in November 2020, has left thousands dead, more than 2 million people displaced and seen many civilian causalities, like this 17-year-old girl.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
South Africa’s isolation
South Africa has been cut off from many parts of the world. After scientists in the country registered the new omicron variant at the end of November, more than two dozen nations suspended flights from South Africa. While some nations, such as the UK, have since lifted their ban on South African travelers, it’s still in place in many others.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Celebrated return of looted art
2021 marks a turning point in the restitution of African cultural heritage. France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are among those countries who have started returning objects stolen from former colonies, or promised to do so. In Benin, the return from Paris of the throne of King Guezo of Dahomey was celebrated with military honors.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
As France withdraws, Mali takes charge
France has handed control of its Timbuktu base in northern Mali to the Malian military after nine years fighting Islamist insurgents in the region. France has said it would withdraw more than 2,000 troops from the Sahel by 2022. In an DW interview, Mali’s foreign minister said he wanted an open and constructive dialogue with France but that Mali needs to be equipped to take command.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
A great year for African literature
It was a good year for African writers. Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga (pictured) was awarded the annual Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Senegal’s Mohamed Mbougar Sarr picked up France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt and South African author Damon Galgut won the Booker Prize for fiction. To top it all off, Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021.
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Africa in 2021: A review in pictures
Let’s dance
Africa rumba is beloved throughout the continent. But for the Congolese, both in DR Congo and the Republic of the Congo, rumba is more than the music — it’s a way of life marking celebration and mourning. That UNESCO has now added Congolese rumba to its intangible heritage list, five years after the death of iconic Rumba musician Papa Wemba (pictured here in 2006), sparked delight in both Congos.
Author: Philipp Sandner
South Africa: Not-so-jolly Christmas amid omicron outbreak
Source:
Pinoy Pop News
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