Food and Poverty

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Food and Poverty

• The impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism

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paradox a seemingly contradictory statement
that may nonetheless be true (http//dictionary.r
eference.com/) paradox - the very people who
produce most of the world's subsistence food are
most often the victims of malnutrition and
starvation
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What is colonialism?

• "... a territory, inhabited or not, acquired by
  conquest or settlement by a people or government
  previously alien to that territory and, imposed
  foreign rule upon such a territory...the
  government extends its sovereignty and imposes
  political control over an alien people or
  territory..." ("Colonies and Colonialism,"
  Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia).

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Why did colonialism occur?

• "God, glory, and greed".
• the need for more land for agriculture
• the search for natural resources (e.g., furs,
  minerals, fish)
• religious freedom
• the desire to convert people to a religion
  (mainly Christianity).

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Take up the White Man's burden-- Send forth the
best ye breed-- Go bind your sons to exile To
serve your captives' need To wait in heavy
harness, On fluttered folk and wild-- Your
new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and
half-child. Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's
Burden (1899) (See http//www.yoga.com/raw/readin
gs/kipling.html)
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The last continent to be colonized Africa

• last phase of European colonialism was the Mad
  Scramble for Africa
• the major European countries completely carved up
  Africa in the period 1886 to 1914
• Africa south of the Sahara was the last largely
  unexplored and unclaimed land mass

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• European rulers wanted to claim their share of it
  - for God, glory, and greed - but did not want to
  create yet another war in Europe.
• established ground rules that allowed for the
  rapid and peaceful (for the Europeans)
  colonialization of the continent.
• distribution of African tribal (that is,
  national, cultural) groups was completely ignored.

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Pre-colonial Africa, 1826
http//search.gallery.yahoo.com/search/corbis_id?p
cid3A10252475
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http//www.loyno.edu/seduffy/MapImages/Africancol
onies1914.jpg
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http//ex.matrix.msu.edu/africa/curriculum/explore
africapics/africapromaps/Colonialism(1945).jpg
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African countries, 2004
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elds99D.jpg
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http//www.pcca.com/Publications/Commentator/2000/
Winter/cover.jpg
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http//www.polarlys.asso.fr/projet/polarlys/Photoi
nt.nsf/Files/0114-12/file/0114-12.jpg
HBC or East India logo
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http//flagspot.net/images/e/eaf.gif
http//www.african.gu.se/maho/miscmaps/bea.html
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sometimes so much good food growing land was
taken out of production that the colonies began
to suffer food shortages the colonial power had
to bring in food supplies from other parts of its
empire to feed people caused populations to
become dependent on food crops that were not
native to their area Africa is now the worlds
leading importer of rice it didnt grow there
before colonialism
http//therice.org/rice/graphicl/cooking1.gif
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Flag Independence
http//www.african.gu.se/maho/miscmaps/0maps/afrda
tes-map.gif
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true economic independence eluded many of the
former colonies basic economic relationships
remained the same the export of raw materials at
a low price, with little domestic, higher value
added, manufacturing or processing taking place
and the former colony must continue to import
these products, which of course cost
more colonial power was replaced by the
transnational corporation
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Neocolonialism
Many developing countries, heavily dependent on
leading industrial nations, are subject to this
new form of imperialism, with significant
proportions of their national product being
allocated to payment of interest on accumulated
foreign debts. http//www.tiscali.co.uk/reference
/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0024214.html
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Sub-Saharan Africa pays 10 billion every year in
debt service 23 African countries spend more
money on debt repayment than they spend on
healthcare Africa today pays more money every
year (in loan interest payments) to the IMF/WB
than it receives in loans from them, thereby
often depriving the inhabitants of those
countries from actual necessities. ,
Long Term Third World Debt, 1998
http//www.fpif.org/briefs/vol4/v4n21debt_body.htm
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how to provide more food? land reform - access to
land is a crucial factor in the eradication of
food insecurity and rural poverty. the world's
poorest people are usually land-poor improved
access to land provides shelter and food
allowing a household to increase food consumption
and may increase household income if surplus
food is produced and sold
http//www.aglimmerofhope.org/images/project_agric
ulture.jpg
http//www.revolutionarycommunist.org.uk/Fb9Bra2.j
pg