French Guiana, a small sliver of South America that remains a French territory, holds a very tumultuous history due to colonization. Since the 1503 arrival of the Spanish, French Guiana’s native people have been fighting occupation. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, locals see glimpses of the past as they rely on French doctors to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Currently, the region is considered France’s most worrisome virus hot spot as its nearly 300,000 people face commonplace poverty and an inadequate health care system.

In 2016, 104 doctors were available per 100,000 people in France, while there were only 55 per 100,000 in French Guiana. Making matters worse, most of these were concentrated in one city, the capital of Cayenne. The arrival of French doctors to administer testing and treatment for COVID-19 is necessary, but it has not brought security to the Guianese people. In a quote given to The Associated Press, Jean-Philippe Chambrier, a member of the Arawak tribe and a representative of French Guiana’s Indigenous communities, said,  “There is still in the minds the time of colonization and the havoc wreaked by viruses brought by colonizers. So when they saw White people from the mainland, they made the link.” The people of French Guiana, some of whom live in the territory’s dense rainforests, were not prepared for this sudden arrival as many had not even been made aware of the pandemic’s extent.

Additionally, the territory’s proximity to COVID-19 hot spot Brazil and the multitude of languages spoken across French Guiana make treatment difficult. It took more than a month to translate the French government’s original COVID-19 guidance into all the local languages, and the slow response put the region at greater risk as more than half of the population lives under the national poverty line. France must focus on the economic and racial disparities caused by colonization if it intends to assist French Guiana in the fight against COVID-19.

While French Guiana lacks the infrastructure to combat the pandemic, much of this inadequacy is caused by colonization. The French initially used the region as a slave colony and later turned it into a penal colony for French prisoners. 

Though French Guiana is no longer a colony, it has not yet gained independence. French Guiana became a national department in 1946; France still has control over the region and the people of French Guiana follow France’s constitution. The French left locals to sort out the systems they had established, leaving wealth inequality and racism in its wake. French Guiana’s people live within a system not designed by them or specifically for them. 

To this day, 62% of French Guiana’s exports go to France, so it is apparent that France’s influence continues unabated. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, the French might finally give French Guiana a much-needed second look.