Food policy is a predominantly overlooked vector of state formation in Africa. Comparing the trajectories of food policy in Senegal and Uganda, this article shows how internationally embedded food policies underpin state domination. It highlights three themesearly colonial food policies, the rise of organisational knowledge and the internationalisation of state domination through multilateral "assistance". This argument is based on field research in both countries and on official documents and secondary literature. Its theoretical orientation draws upon a historical sociology of the State, as opposed to the idea of the heroic nation-state or the State as a component of "global 'governance'". We claim that food policy is highly politicised and that its effects on the State deserve much more attention in International Relations (IR), on the one hand, and state theory on the other. To study politics around food, we argue, would help to globalise IR.