A Matter of Life and Death: State Power and Control of the Body in a Pandemic Era in the Light of Foucault’s Concept of Biopolitics

Abstract

The advent of COVID-19 pandemic saw the declaration of state of national disaster in South Africa which meant that the country was literally shut down with several restrictions on socio-economic and with it some human bodily activities. The situation has brought into the fore a revived interest in the interrogation of the nexus between state power and control of freedom of citizens. As such, the issue has also brought into focus Foucault’s analysis of power in modern and postmodern societies centring on the concept of biopower/biopolitics. Considering the centrality of citizen’s constitutional right to several civil liberties including right to bodily integrity, there is need to explore the limits of state power in the idea of biopolitics. This essay utilises desktop methods to interrogate state’s power and control of citizen’s bodies in South Africa during and post COVID-19 era. Ultimately, the article is an attempt to contribute to the discourse on how political theorising incorporates human embodiment.