AFRICA’S GOVERNANCE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 | PRELIMINARY REPORT 2020 FOREWORD poses as science. We live in the realm of doubt and probability because, factually, we don’t really have a full picture of what is out there – the full picture of the facts of a reality that exists outside and independent of our senses. These assumptions are reflected in the tools we have developed to assist our senses make better and proper sense of the factual reality and the future, another domain that is not fully understood by humans, and is still in the domain of the unknown. These tools range from our microscopes and telescopes, to formulae and theories we have to help our senses process and make sense of external reality. For us who work for bodies like the African Union, we have analytical and forecasting tools that we use to determine and generate data about the physical facts of our world. We analyse these data and try to make projections into the future and so forth. The problem with assumptions is that, in as much as they empower our senses to enable us to engage the external reality in a better way, they also create blind spots for us. Assumptions are like a vehicle – a beautifully built vehicle. I have been working on African issues in different capacities for some 30 years – as an academic, in the policy-making space, and as foreign policy practitioner. But I didn’t see the phenomenon that is COVID-19 coming. We sit inside it and drive on the highway. But this vehicle has blind spots. Its structure and your sitting position in may prevent you from seeing certain things; even things that could be of danger to you and your car. We make up for this weakness in our cars by turning our necks to check the blind spots. However, in life we don’t always turn our necks. We take our assumptions for granted and as being self-evident. We miss so many things because of the many blind spots; we miss even those things that pose an existential danger to us. The reason for this is in our assumptions, or paradigms – that is, assumptions we make about the external world as something that exists independent of us. We are part of this reality as a biological life form. We can only experience the external reality via our senses. Through these senses, we build what we consider to be a body of knowledge; in some cases, this body of knowledge 3