The Political Economy of Hunger in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe

Abstract

The first-time visitor to Salisbury cannot help but be impressed by the exceptionally clean and modern downtown area. The well-kept parks and spotless boulevards put any city in the United States to shame. Supermarket shelves are well stocked, and the near total absence of beggars makes one wonder if this is in fact part of the African continent. If one stays inside the downtown area and its rich suburbs, one can easily miss the ugly truth that millions of people in this relatively affluent nation are suffering from malnutrition and that whole communities have been destroyed by starvation.

Home and belonging in Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door and Andrea Eames’ The Cry of the Go-Away Bird

“…So far as black people are concerned, this claim is absurd. Malnutrition and starvation characterized the lives of black people in Rhodesia, where doctors blandly admitted that “malnutrition is a normal condition among our Africans” (Danaher, 1981: 33).…”

“…[T]he goal was to allow the Africans a standard of living sufficient to reproduce the workforce but not so high as to allow them to escape dependence on wage labor. (1981: 34)…”