by Bolaji Olaronke Akanni, Rukayat Usman, and Sharon Adetutu Omotoso
Abstract
Death is an unavoidable component of human life, an ever-present reality that, paradoxically, is increasingly avoided. In circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments’ political communication regulated mourning processes, women were affected in particular ways because they are typically the carriers and choreographers of funeral rites; during the pandemic, they developed a form of “silent mourning.” By interrogating these dynamics, this article contributes to a nuanced understanding of grief, caregiving, and crisis management in the context of public health emergencies. Using methods of critical analysis, as well as deconstructive and reconstructive argumentation, this study seeks philosophically to foreground decolonial remains (surviving Indigenous cultural ways of mourning and caring that women relied on during COVID-19) linked to Western-centric political communication as women navigated mourning practices during the pandemic. We employ an African feminist philosophical lens to interrogate the relevance of feminist ethics of care during this time.
Keywords: African feminist philosophy, COVID-19, decolonisation, political communication, silent mourning
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05_FA2025_Vol6.3_Feature_Akanni-et.al_