The year 2020 has been synonymous with a mask all over Africa to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The object, which has become an everyday accessory, does not yet obtain a real consensus so ...

In Dakar and Johannesburg, the mask was a must in 2020

Men wearing masks in the Liberté 6 Baraka district of Dakar, May 2, 2020. REUTERS / Zohra Bensemra

Text by: RFI Follow

5 mins

The year 2020 has been synonymous with a mask all over Africa to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The object, which has become an everyday accessory, does not yet obtain a real consensus while it is mandatory in many places, such as in South Africa or Senegal.

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In schools in Dakar, the mask has been an obligation since their reopening in November.

It is therefore a puzzle for parents like Fatou Diallo, who came to pick up her 10-year-old daughter.

She tells our correspondent in Dakar,

Théa Ollivier

, that she has opted for surgical masks: “

I have packages at home.
Every morning when she leaves, she takes a mask and then she leaves with it.
She has to and every month she uses two packs.

Samba Jaffé, father of two, prefers fabric masks: “

We buy the fabric masks that we prepare every beginning of the week and that we distribute in the morning.
They are machine washed and ironed before giving them to children.
They start to get used to it because it becomes an accessory.
Especially the little one, she likes the colored masks where there are drawings.

Local masks that work less and less

And these fabric masks are made locally, especially in the sewing workshops in the city center.

These masks are then resold on the spot for around 500 CFA francs, or less than one euro, by traders like Mabygueye Diop: “

The masks, we have started selling them since the start of the coronavirus.
It worked well.
People used to wear the masks that we made in the factory.
But now the masks no longer work because it is the surgical masks that are at the top because it costs 100 CFA francs each.
And then there are a lot of people who don't wear the mask all the time, he just wears it for the police and not for the disease.

►Also read: Covid-19 in Senegal: a very special Christmas for Christians

But why do the Senegalese not fear this virus?

Notably because every day, a hundred new cases and less than ten deaths are counted by the Ministry of Health.

These figures are much lower than those for Europe.

Having patients wear the mask is therefore a daily struggle for doctors like Dr. Majdi Kaouk: “

There was a special relationship that must have been created between my patients and myself.
There were those who initially did not believe in this pandemic, those who told me that it is a flu, that we risk nothing.
I had to demand that they wear a mask in my office.

In South Africa, if they have also become essential, in the streets of large cities, the mask is now seen as a simple key to entering stores, explains our correspondent in Johannesburg,

Claire Bargelès

Sibonginkosi is walking to a supermarket, to complete her New Year's shopping. She has her mask with her, so that she can enter the supermarket, but lowered it on her chin, so that she can breathe better in the street. : “

It's really not easy to always have to wear it, because it's very hot right now.
In my everyday bag, I make sure I have two or three.
But sometimes when I can't breathe I run it down a bit on my face.

Fear of the fine

If in the most controlled districts, it is impossible to enter a restaurant or a store without a mask, other establishments, for example in Soweto, have relaxed their measures despite the second wave.

For Siyabonga, all this does not encourage us to be careful: “

In some places we go, they will be very strict on the fact of wearing a mask at the entrance, but once the security check has passed, we can take it off, and no one wears it anymore.
So I think that makes us take it all a little less seriously.

Things should change, since the announcements of Cyril Ramaphosa, and the strengthening of restrictions and controls.

Tyrone, who helps park cars, knows he's risking a lot now if he doesn't wear his sheet mask: “

I don't like it, but since Ramaphosa's speech I've been wearing it.
I'm afraid of getting fined because I live on the streets, do odd jobs, and have no money.

A person who does not wear his mask after being ordered by a police officer now risks up to 80 euros in fines and 6 months in prison.

►Also read: Covid-19: South Africa passes the million-case mark and makes the mask mandatory

In Dakar and Johannesburg, the mask was a must in 2020

In Dakar and Johannesburg, the mask was a must in 2020

Local masks that work less and less

Fear of the fine

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