The politics of identity has become a contentious issue regarding the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic “with the US and other allies suggesting that China has not been transparent about the origins of the outbreak” (www.theguardian.com). In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, the politics of identity took centre stage as there was counter accusations and procrastination among superpowers regarding the origins of the coronavirus.  

While there has been an unsubstantiated argument by the USA that the coronavirus could have been engineered it is almost unanimous… (in its March 2020 bulletin), a team in California led by microbiology professor Kristian Anderson said “the genetic data irrefutable shows that (Covid-19) is not derived from any previously used virus backbone” – in other words spliced sections of another known virus. “(lbid)”. 

What is clear is that an attempt to politicise the Covid-19 pandemic was at stake.  This politicisation of the pandemic was not unexpected as it has been argued that pandemics “create fear, and fear is a key ingredient for racism and xenophobia to thrive.” The Covid-19 pandemic has uncovered social and political features within communities, with racialized and discriminatory responses to fear, disproportionally affecting marginalised groups. (De vakumar, etal, 2020 P194). 

The aspect of discrimination that comes with Covid-19 pandemic occurs within social, political, and historical contexts and these are also visible in religious settings through fear, isolation and lockdown regulations which have the capacity to create a huge social stigma, hatred, and discrimination thereby hindering public health access by the infected.

Pandemics tend to invoke politics of identity even from a religious perspective since religious leaders try to justify their belief systems about the underlying cause of the pandemic in ways and means that are meant to instil fear among the people.  This is so because politics of identity are the “construction”, reconstruction, or disruption of notions about what it means to claim particular identities, or the creation or recreation of meanings attached to them – especially if these efforts are attempts to shift power relations within or between groups” (Harris, et al,2013, p6). Ideologically, “politics of identity is discourse and narrative shaping meaning and identities.  How do we use technology, media images, and other forms of communication to express ideas about identity? Politics of identity are premised on a rejectionist theological discourse which claims that because secular values in modern society have massively replaced traditional and religious values, the world is being punished for rejecting God.

Semantically, the politics of identity relates to how power is deployed in asserting ideological issues and values.  For example, naming and categorising is a vital part of identity work and is political.  What is apparent in the politics of identity is that certain religious discourses about Covid -19 pandemic drive this ideology as some Christians argue that “the pandemic is not merely extraordinary but apocalyptic.” 

Such beliefs may appear in all or most other religious groups, although a serious conviction that apocalyptic change is imminent may be confined to a minority of individuals within any faith tradition” (Dein, et al, 2020 P1)

Theologically, the politics of identity in any social crisis tend to be apocalyptic in character.  In pursuit of such politics of identity, “Some religious groups have neglected health preventative measures for Covid –19 and have therefore played a role in spreading the virus… such religious groups have an aggressive and deceptive proselytising practice and packing its members tightly in the church during services.  

Worshippers are promised entry into the “New Heaven and the New Earth” thereby declining treatment and preventive measures for virus infection” (Dein,2020, p2). Looking at it from the Covid-19 perspective although the church is still the centre of events, norms and procedures have been interrupted reducing the number of events to not more than 50 persons, from the initial 10 within the Namibian borders. Amid Covid-19 regulations and not doing this, causes more traumatic and stressful emotional pain for friends and family members of the deceased as they are interrelated.

Conclusion in the context of Covid-19 pandemic, while fear serves some positive purpose in the prevention efforts and in moulding healthy public behaviour, we should never allow fear to serve as a negative destructive force that promotes all sorts of myths and parranda which become a form of negative religion.  

Good theology always believes our Christian faith is built on the firm foundation of an invincible hope: the hope that tells us
God always intervenes in any and every predicament that we find ourselves in.  The reality of natural and social evils in our broken work should never be blamed on the good and loving Creator God who at the end of His creative works looks at the amazing power of His work and declares: “Behold everything is good and beautiful.” (Genesis 1:13) hence the need to fight the Covid-19 pandemic with all our religious zeal, medical ethics, and scientific prowess! 

The church must embrace the Holy Scripture that invites us to “fight the good fight of the faith… “(1 Tim. 6:12) towards the healing of the broken world.

*Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of the //Kharas Regional Council and former! Nami#nus constituency councillor. He holds a Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), as well as a Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA.