The View From Inside: Day Eleven

by Chris de Beer-Procter from Cape Town, South Africa

We celebrated our second-year marriage anniversary locked down in Cape Town, drinking our last precious bottle of red wine (sales of alcohol is prohibited during lockdown) in our first home, which we bought together only a few months ago. My wife has an immune condition, they’re not allowed to leave the house.

I’ve turned my camera on the safe, intimate space we’ve created for our little family, perhaps as a way to affirm the difference between Out There and Inside.

Inside we are safe, warm and in love. That we know as true. Out There is uncertain. When I come from the Out There, shooting for work or shopping for groceries, there are rituals I must observe to pass through from Out There to Inside. To keep our space safe, sacred and intimate. The activity of putting on a mask, sanitising my hands, washing my clothes and tracing my steps to sanitise again have become little daily expressions of care.

A man was arrested today for claiming that the tests are contaminated and we shouldn’t allow the government to test us.

A guy on a WhatsApp group equated the clampdown on fake news to Hitler’s fascism.

I’m starting to feel overwhelmed by the fake news and conspiracy theories being shared on social media and WhatsApp groups. I’ve had to make a lockdown resolution to ignore them.

Conspiracy theories used to fascinate and entertain me, but now they infuriate me. Theories about how the virus doesn’t exist, how its just a lie told by the 1% to keep us oppressed. It’s caused by 5G. The virus doesn’t actually exist, our governments are actually injecting it into its citizens. And a uniquely South African and unfortunately entirely predictable one- that there’s widespread looting by the poor, which will deplete our food and essential resources leading to people from our the informal settlements (in this case, a euphemism for black South Africans) to storm the more affluent suburbs to raid the homes of “good, law abiding tax payers” (a euphemism for the white minority).

My wife (they/them) is a psychologist, all of their sessions must now be conducted via Skype or Zoom. As such, they have done work in the office, making sure the view from the laptop is better for their clients than a blank wall.

Featured Diaries