The Art and Politics of COVID-19: Online Conference Panel 2

The second panel In the Crossfire of COVID considered the responses of religious institutions to Covid and how these were transposed and articulated on social media. 

In the first presentation in the program In the Spirit of Passover: A Graphic Response to Covid-19 analysed a painting by Professor Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi. The painting reflected upon the longstanding inequalities in Nigeria which hindered responses to the Covid pandemic. 

In Music to the Rescue: A Discourse Analysis of Covid 19 Songs in Northern Nigeria  by Dr. Nura Ibrahim, PhD from Bayero University, we were able to hear about the digital discourses of musicians in Kano and their responses to the pandemic. Dr Ibrahim offered a nuanced analysis of these relating them to Islamic religious ideas and practices to help their publics cope with the challenges and stress that Covid 19 presented.  

The third presentation In  the  Crossfire of COVID-19:  Religion, Culture, Politics and the Challenges of the new pandemic in Nigeria by Prof. Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi, Dr Michael I. Ugwueze, from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Dr. George C. Nche, PhD, ​Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, offered a critique of the wider contexts of Christian evangelical churches and their shift to the digital in holding virtual services and the problematics of the accompanying tithes collected.