Memory and the social meanings of famine

Abstract

Famine theory has overlooked the role of memory in constituting the social meaning of famine. This seminal collection of papers restores the cross-disciplinary study of famines, foregrounding social anthropology, history and comparative politics, in the question of how famines are understood by those in the afflicted societies, and how memories and meanings are shaped by social and political context. The collection plays an important role in focussing attention on transitional justice mechanisms for starvation crimes.

Keywords:

• Famine
• memory
• post-colonial
• hunger
• agriculture and food security
• disasters

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 https://www.irishcentral.com/travel/top-ten-unspoilt-irish-tourist-spots-off-the-beaten-track-photos-136732068-237762451, accessed 5 April 2023.

2 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, ‘What is Famine?’ https://www.ipcinfo.org/famine-facts/, accessed 12 April 2023.

3 With acknowledgement to Susanne Jaspars for bringing my attention to this example of a long-lived memory of hunger.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alex de Waal

Alex de Waal is Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and Research Professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He has worked on the Horn of Africa, and on conflict, food security and related issues since the 1980s as a researcher and practitioner. He served as a senior advisor to the African Union High Level Panel on Sudan and South Sudan. He was listed among Foreign Policy’s 100 most influential international intellectuals in 2008 and Atlantic’s 29 ‘brave thinkers’ in 2009. De Waal’s recent books include: The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power (Polity 2015), Mass Starvation: The history and future of famine (Polity 2018), and New Pandemics, Old Politics: 200 years of the war on disease and its alternatives (Polity 2021). He is co-author (with Willow Berridge, Justin Lynch and Raga Makawi) of Sudan’s Unfinished Democracy: The promise and betrayal of a people’s revolution (Hurst and Oxford Univ Press 2022) and co-editor and contributor to Accountability for Mass Starvation: Testing the limits of the law (Oxford Univ Press 2022).