TY - CHAP
T1 - An analysis of internet memes and discourses on traditional medicines as remedies for covid-19 in Zimbabwe
AU - Msimanga, Mbongeni Jonny
AU - Tshuma, Lungile Augustine
AU - Ndlovu, Mphathisi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Prof P. Davis, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France, for providing Plasmodium vivax genomic DNA (Belem strain), and the members of the Di-yarbakir Malaria and Tropical Diseases Research and Education Center Malaria Unite, Diyarbakir, Turkey, for providing Plasmodium vivax infected blood samples. This project was supported by: The Wellcome Trust (Grant No: 060406 UK), TUBITAK (Project No: TBAG 1969) and Firat University Scientific Research Unit (Project No: 565, 682, 694).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.
PY - 2021/10/21
Y1 - 2021/10/21
N2 - The world over, by no doubt, came to halt due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-the worst pandemic to be experienced in the twenty-first century. The virus was initially reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and spread across the globe. This pandemic has pushed countries into recessions, forcing sudden severe restrictions and curfews to people's everyday lives. These restrictions have introduced new social life-styles such as social distancing, quarantining and regular use of hand sanitizers. The virus forced countries, corporate organisations and institutions into a new way of implementing work. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been the general playfulness about the virus that has seen an outpouring of memes and gags on social media platforms that invite academic scrutiny. In this chapter, we consider how humour has been used as a means of communicating indigenous ways of boosting the immune system and treating COVID-19 pandemic. We consider how memes gave people a sense of power to comment on prescribed treatments for the COVID-19 virus. Findings show that memes were used to challenge vaccines, commercialise indigenous herbs such as Zumbani/umsuzwane and constitute a social commentary on COVID-19 indigenous herbs.
AB - The world over, by no doubt, came to halt due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-the worst pandemic to be experienced in the twenty-first century. The virus was initially reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and spread across the globe. This pandemic has pushed countries into recessions, forcing sudden severe restrictions and curfews to people's everyday lives. These restrictions have introduced new social life-styles such as social distancing, quarantining and regular use of hand sanitizers. The virus forced countries, corporate organisations and institutions into a new way of implementing work. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been the general playfulness about the virus that has seen an outpouring of memes and gags on social media platforms that invite academic scrutiny. In this chapter, we consider how humour has been used as a means of communicating indigenous ways of boosting the immune system and treating COVID-19 pandemic. We consider how memes gave people a sense of power to comment on prescribed treatments for the COVID-19 virus. Findings show that memes were used to challenge vaccines, commercialise indigenous herbs such as Zumbani/umsuzwane and constitute a social commentary on COVID-19 indigenous herbs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132068696&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-79279-4_5
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-79279-4_5
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85132068696
SN - 9783030792787
SP - 101
EP - 121
BT - Digital Humour in the Covid-19 Pandemic
PB - Springer International Publishing
ER -
