House of Hunger

In South Africa, the politicisation of COVID-19 widened structural fissures, unearthed underlying inequalities, and exposed the ‘rainbow nation’ fallacy. The pandemic highlighted the struggles faced by marginalised households whose income streams were wiped out during lockdown. Public unrest emerged in townships and manifested as food protests, which undermined the perception of South Africa as a food secure country. Whilst the state and mainstream media dismissed these protests as criminal incidences, a contextualised analysis exposes the desperation of certain groups’ experiences of hunger and disillusionment in Black South African townships. Framing ‘food as political’, this paper interrogates the weaponisation of food by the government, which violently used state security forces to subdue marginalised populations. The paper draws on Dambudzo Marechera’s 1978 novella House of Hunger to condemn the gendered and militarised state response to ‘starving black bodies.’ It exposes the ruthlessness of how the state worked with mainstream media to protect corporate capital and foreign investments in the name of ‘security’ and ‘wellbeing,’ and explores the ultimate ‘logic’ of food protests in South African urban areas. In conclusion, the paper argues that the mainstream media hyper-visualised Black bodies as unruly, criminal, and therefore disposable, in order to dismiss their human right to food

Agriculture · Development economics · Economics · Food security · Geography · Mainstream · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Unrest · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law

• ‘A tale of two paradoxes in response to Covid-19’

  Open Access•Bellita Banda Chitsamatanga, Wayne Malinga et al.•Cogent Social Sciences•2021

  Añadir item

• Research priorities for global food security under extreme events

  Open Access•Zia Mehrabi, Ruth Delzeit et al.•One Earth•2022

  Añadir item

• Interrogating questions of national belonging, difference and xenophobia in South Africa

  Kezia Batisai•Agenda•2016

  Añadir item

• Explaining the African food riots of 2007–2008

  Open Access•Julia Berazneva, David R Lee•Food Policy•2013

  Añadir item

• Social Conflict in Africa

  Idean Salehyan, Cullen S Hendrix et al.•International Interactions•2012

  Añadir item

• Who will make the ‘best’ use of Africa’s land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

  Jeanette Manjengwa, Joseph Hanlon et al.•Third World Quarterly•2014

  Añadir item

• Latin American Perspectives at 50

  Open Access•Alex Dupuy•Latin American Perspectives•2024

  Añadir item

• Weapons of the Weak

  F G Bailey, James C Scott•Pacific Affairs•1987

  Añadir item