Affective politics of care during COVD-19: feminist views of intersectional inequalities in Mali

Contrary to many African states’ restrictive COVID-19 measures in the first half of 2020, which had severe socio-economic and political effects, the Malian government appeared more moderate in its fight against the pandemic and even introduced social measures to alleviate the effects of COVID-19 and of COVID-19 measures. Against this background, this talk focuses on the politics of care constructed by the Malian political elites between March and August 2020. It uses an affective-discursive approach to analyse government communications on COVID-19 (measures) and contrasts them with a feminist view of associations, NGOs, and activists. In addition, these pandemic perspectives are related to the historical and socio-political context of Mali’s postcolonial care arrangements. This talk shows that postcolonial, neoliberal-capitalist, and hetero-patriarchal path dependencies have decreased opportunities for care from the Malian state and increased the intersectional vulnerabilities of Malians, and notably of Malian women and further marginalized groups. In the context of COVID-19, these intersectional gendered vulnerabilities were still exacerbated even by the relatively moderate measures the Malian government declared. Even more so, the affective politics of care that were maintained through the presidential discourse used securitisation and solidarity to construct subject positions that incorporated rather than challenged the aforementioned gendered inequalities and their related vulnerabilities.