ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the role played by black African hybridity in interpreting (mis)information related to COVID-19 and how this determined the psychological well-being of patients and caregivers in sub-Saharan Africa. Data was sought from Malawians who had lived through the COVID-19 pandemic either as patients or as caregivers to COVID-19 patients. Respondents provided detailed accounts of their experiences with COVID-19 capturing what was happening during their encounter with the COVID-19-related information at physical, psychological, spiritual, and emotional levels. Grounded theory was used, and the study assumed that when COVID-19 was at its peak, people were bombarded with a barrage of correct or wrong information. COVID-19 patients and their caregivers processed and utilised it to make confident decisions about their lives, and this information was processed in relation to their Africanness. The chapter argues that Africanness affected people’s reaction to the circulating information in the sense that, for some, the puzzling information stoked long-standing fears and fuelled a feeling of loss of hope for survival, suspicion, and mistrust. The chapter concludes that due to their Africanness, sub-Saharan Africans experienced COVID-19 differently from the rest of the world, leading to heightened psychological distress.
