16 March 2021 marks a year and a day since the first Covid-19 lockdown was announced in South Africa. Since then, we’ve experienced frightening first and second waves, while there is speculation about a possible third wave come winter. At present, vaccines are the focus of everyone’s attention and conversation.

But what does history tell us about waves, death tolls, vaccines and social, medical and religious responses to pandemics in South Africa’s past? What were their immediate and longer-term consequences? What happened to memories of these pandemics?

Please join us, with author Emeritus Professor Howard Phillips, a specialist in the social history of medicine, especially in respect of pandemics, and Bhekisisa editor-in-chief Mia Malan on our Jacana Media Don’t Shut Up Conversation series as they try to use past pandemics in South Africa to illuminate the Covid-19 pandemic.

Plague Pox and Pandemics: A conversation between Mia Malan and Howard Phillip