Why Does Africa Suffer Famine?

Tajudeen’s Thursday Post cardTHERE is famine in a number of Southern African countries with Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Angola more affected than the rest. No one denies this truth but there is a difference in emphasis as to what the cause may be. Drought like all other natural disasters can occur in any country but what turns drought into famine is both a combination of the technological development of the Society concerned and power or powerlessness of those directly affected. For instance, there is drought ravaging regions of the USA at the moment but we would not see pictures of malnourished Americans used to front campaigns by those angels of misery (otherwise called humanitarian agencies) to raise funds for needy Americans.This is due to a number of reasons. The USA has more than enough food reserve to cover the losses due to the drought. It also has the technological resources to ameliorate the situation. The farmers are such a powerful interest group that no administration dares ignore their plight. Finally, no administration can remain in office if it cannot feed its people.Welcome to mother Africa where all of the above, in the negative, may not lead to the collapse of the government of the day. That is why natural disasters quickly transform into disproportionate and prolonged suffering across this continent. The responsibility is primarily political.Take the case of Malawi which had surplus strategic grain reserve in 1999 but was forced to privatize the agency by the IMF. Consequently by the time drought came the private agency had already sold most of the reserve for profit and the country had no reserves to fall back on. It is not enough to blame the IMF the government of Malawi must take responsibility for its irresponsibility in taking the wrong advice. Would the American government , despite its free market ideology ever take such advice? Would the EU with its notorious food subsidies, butter mountains, wine lakes and pyramids of grains ever take advice about selling off in order to make agriculture more competitive? Our governments can take these decisions only because they do not care what the interest of the majority of our peoples are. But more importantly because that silent majority has no means of enforcing its will or punishing any regime that ignores its interest.The case of Zimbabwe is generally blamed on the internecine conflict over land reform for the past two years. The government must take responsibility however to blame everything on land reform is disingenuous. It does not explain why there is famine in other countries. It also presupposes that the bulk of the food crops of the country was produced by commercial land owners. The evidence suggest that the bulk of the food eaten by the people is produced by small farmers with the big farmers cultivating mainly cash crops and food for export. The land reform conflicts is an important factor only in the context of the country being too broke to be able buy food internationally to make for the short supply.But how does one explain the Angola situation? Yes, the civil war in the country (which happily is now almost completely over) is a factor. But Angola is one of the richest country in Africa. That its people should be starving is a consequence of the priorities set by the government. It can afford to buy food and if it has not it is because the interest of the starving people is not dominant in budgetary allocation and national planning.Both Angola and Zimbabwe along with Uganda, Rwanda and Namibia have managed to spend millions of dollars daily in their military campaigns in the DRC without a recourse to ‘international begging’. So their not finding resources to cushion the effect of drought on their people is a question of priority not lack of resources.Whatever the reasons for the famine people are suffering and they need help. But should this be help at all cost and by whatever means? I do not think so. The US government has been quick to offer help in the form of genetically modified maize. Zimbabwe rejected it initially and Angola expressed its concern and only last week Zambia also rejected it. On the surface, it looks like these governments are behaving as though beggars can chose. With Zimbabwe the demonisation of Mugabe internationally made him ‘the usual suspect’ but I do not think that everything the government of Zimbabwe or President Mugabe does is bad. There are legitimate issues about GM foods which makes millions of people in the USA and Europe unwilling to eat such foods. Why should Africa be the dumping ground or the experimental laboratory?Humanitarian agencies are claiming that GM foods should be accepted because it is better than nothing and because people are starving. Very persuasive argument at the emotional level but it does not address the scientific health concerns about GM foods. Also let us change the context of the appeal. Imagine a predominantly Muslim country is suffering drought, could the people be persuaded to eat pork on the grounds of this is what is available? Or could Hindus be whitemailed into eating beef even if it is the only food available?GM foods are not the only available food surplus in the world and even in Africa itself. The US is cynically exploiting the plight of the starving to create an artificial market for its GM foods and promote the corporate sharks pushing this food of dubious nutritional and health value. Tajudeen28@yahoo.comEnds