Care During Pandemic Times: Digital Ethnography with Mental Health Professionals in Equatorial Guinea

Abstract

This article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted my anthropological research inquiry of care among mental health professionals at a community shelter and a psychiatric hospital in Equatorial Guinea. The rapidly evolving changes required the methods of digital anthropology, which allowed an understanding of embodiments of care. Under volatile conditions and intersections between the personal and the public, mental health professionals carried and invested care in communities and (re)discovered new challenges and vulnerabilities. Medical agencies revealed symbolic roles, meanings, and qualities of care. This article proposes opportunities for the discipline of public anthropology to serve as a medium for the engagement of collective solutions. [anthropology, mental health care, Equatorial Guinea, COVID-19].