From bloodsuckers to colonial abuses: Understanding the roots of vaccine fears in Africa
Fears of bloodsucking vampires and other wild rumours have resurfaced with the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. To challenge misconceptions we must look deeper into religious and mystical beliefs, writes Charles Pensulo.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
One day, while I was sitting on the floor with my young classmates in primary school in rural Malawi, a group of angry parents stormed our class, brandishing panga knives, wooden sticks and an assortment of other makeshift weapons.
It was the early 2000s and my home area in southern Malawi was abuzz with rumours of ‘bloodsuckers’. According to the rumours, the vampires possessed supernatural powers and were targeting their victims to extract blood for witchcraft rituals. Word had spread that bloodsuckers were at the school. We children were sent home, while urgent meetings between the school management and the community took place.
About a decade later, the stories resurfaced, spreading from across the border in Mozambique, this time amplified by social media. Despite assurances from the police that the rumours were false, vigilantes took matters into their own hands with deadly results.
It is against this backdrop of myth and misinformation that Malawi has tried to roll out its Covid-19vaccination campaign, and some of the same fears have resurfaced.
Vaccine uptake has been a contentious issue, not only in Malawi but across the African continent where myths and misconceptions have thrived. In my country, rumours have been wilder and more widespread in rural areas where access to verified information is limited.
The ministry of health earlier this year introduced the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in a campaign targeting schoolchildren aged 12 to 17. But vaccine hesitancy is also strong among young people, who need to seek their parents’ consent for vaccination.
By the end of January, fewer than 5,000 children had been vaccinated. To Willy Malimba, President of the Teachers Union of Malawi, this is hardly surprising. “There isn’t a school that can say the students will accept the vaccine. Once the health workers come with the vaccine, the learners are likely to run away.”
His own personal experience attests to this. When he was visiting schools on official duties, students started to run away from his vehicle, even in the cities. The teachers told him they thought he was coming with the vaccines.
The solution, according to Malimba, is to talk with community and offer them the facts around the vaccine before approaching schools.
“They should go direct to the community because these students are coming from communities where these negatives are widespread. If the community is sensitized and convinced, they will inform their children to receive the vaccine. But if they (the vaccine teams) go directly to school, it will become a problem.”
Africa is the continent least vaccinated against Covid-19, primarily due to a shortfall in supplies throughout 2021, but in part due to people’s reluctance to take up the jab.
To fully understand fears around the vaccine, we need to look deeper at the misconceptions, and better understand religious and even mystical beliefs, says Dr Chiwoza Bandawe, a clinical psychologist at Malawi’s College of Medicine.
Many people are not critically weighing up the information that has been circulating or questioning how it is sourced.
“One needs to ask, ‘Who am I hearing this from? Is this pertinent authority figure?’ - but that line of critical thinking is not there. As a result, people tend to believe anything that is thrown out there and with the social media these days, everyone is expert.
