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Global Voices
Global Voices
A mother getting vaccinated in South Africa. Image by USAID/South Africa, taken on September 3, 2021 (CC BY-NC 2.0). On November 25, South African health minister Joe Phaahla announced the detection of a new COVID-19 variant in the country’s Gauteng province. The B.1.1.529 or Omicron COVID-19 variant was first sequenced in Botswana by Dr. Sikhulile Moyo, a Zimbabwean scientist based there. Since then, Western nations have re-echoed colonial labeling of Africa as a diseased continent by racing to ban flights from what they perceive as COVID-infested Southern Africa. At the same time, the entry …