Africa report 2020 : transformations, mobilization and continuity / Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal, Elsa Aimé González (coordination); Mateo Peyrouzet García-Siñeriz (coordination assistant)

Over the last few months, COVID-19 has gripped the attention of every society because of its immediate impacts, but also because of the uncertainty that it triggers when it comes to our collective envisagement of a future in the medium to long term. Naturally, this reality has had an impact on the various transformations and political, economic, and social projects in which African societies are engaged. There is a common feature of the numerous analyses to have tackled COVID-19 in the African continent and of the analyses on Africa in general of the last few years: many are either overly optimistic or pessimistic.

We need a broader perspective if we are to understand how the pandemic will impact and condition the continent’s political, economic and social processes, but it would be problematic to assume that the pandemic will put an end to them. The preparation and timetable of this Africa 2020 Report have been marked by this event affecting the global scene and the writers taking part have endeavoured to incorporate it into their thoughts as far as possible. Following in the footsteps of the Africa 2019 Report, our goal has been to elaborate on the approach to the continent as a whole, an increasingly common and accepted viewpoint, without at any time trying to ignore the specific realities of its different regions, diaspora included.