Abstract
Following the announcement of a lockdown in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, due to the rising number of coronavirus infections, fear and concern spread rapidly among the city’s population. This situation triggered a large movement of people from Kinshasa toward neighboring provinces.
Within this context, the present phenomenological qualitative study explores the social representations of COVID-19, the motivations behind population displacement, and participants’ perceptions of care strategies or “therapeutic artifacts†used in response to the pandemic. Data were collected through 19 semi-structured interviews.
The analysis identified five main categories of social representations of COVID-19: an imaginary disease, a disease created for business purposes, an invention intended for demographic control, a war between states, and divine punishment. In addition, four major motivations influenced population movement: socioeconomic hardship, insecurity, the closure of churches, and easier access to traditional treatment.
The study further reveals that displaced populations relied largely on traditional therapies, including herbal medicine, traditional beliefs, prayers, and sorcery, to cope with the pandemic. The findings highlight the need to improve public knowledge, strengthen communication systems, and implement interventions aimed at transforming negative social representations of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; Social representations; Therapeutic artifacts; Lockdown.