The Environmental History of Africa

Topic 15 - Roots of African Famine, 1984-87

  1. Famine and Africa have become synonymous in last quarter of 20th century
    1. Is this accurate? Earlier generations had Armenia, China, Biafra as examples of world famine. Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular has replaced those earlier images.
    2. If so, why and how?
    3. What is there to do? What does history have to contribute to a solution

  2. Definition of Famine and Causes: Famine is a result of the failure of human interactions with land, vegetation, livestock, etc. to produce sufficient food.
    1. Famine is a state of widespread food scarcity under which victims are unable to replace energy lost in basal metabolism and thus consume body fat--often ending in death.
    2. Causes would include
      1. climate, i.e. drought
      2. demography, i.e. overpopulation
      3. disease, loss of livestock or human labor
      4. Concentration on cash crops
      5. agriculture, failure of production
      6. politics, bad government policies (socialism/price controls)
      7. warfare
    3. Who is vulnerable?
      1. Structural --people vulnerable because of who they are in society.
      2. Episodic -- shocks which affect everyone.
    4. Drought as a single causal factor does not work. In 1985 there were 31 droughts worldwide, but only 5 of these later coincided with famine. What other explanations are needed?

  3. Amartya Sen's theory of "entitlements" indicated that in modern famines absence of food not a good measure, but absence of entitlements.
    1. Entitlements are exchange (money).
    2. Kinship and social claims are entitlement to resources.
    3. Political: ability to command resources because of political influence (Indian example) allow people to command resources and avoid famine.
    4. When they have neither a population is vulnerable to famine (esp. in event of an environmental or political shock).

  4. Famines are ubiquitous in human history, but their causes, geography, and demography have changed in world history.
    1. Pre-industrial famines resulted from environmental calamity that interrupted food production. Distribution was limited to small scale and market networks. Famines were more common in areas of limited rainfall or where episodic disease struck.
    2. Industrial revolution changes farm productivity, transport, storage of food and ability of urban populations to accumulate entitlements.
    3. Colonial period and 20th century allowed industrialized countries to extract materials from Africa and Asia, build transport and develop extractive markets. Entitlements in developed countries expanded while they contracted in developing countries. Food was a commodity obtainable primarily by cash. Markets provided food locally from other regions but only through cash. Food aid was political at international and local level.