Entitlements or empowerment? famine and starvation in Africa

Abstract

Famine and the crisis of African development have become inseparably linked in popular writing. Visual images of starvation are the icons of African failure, yet they have a dispelling quality accusing everyone and no one. This article reviews recent research on the genesis, dynamics and consequences of famine in Africa. While the entitlement approach to starvation associated with Amartya Sen has proven most helpful it must be situated on the larger political economic canvas by which entitlements and endowments are distributed and fought over – class relations. Food crises must be rooted in what Sen calls the ‘totality of rights’ not entitlements in a narrow legal sense. This provides an important link between famine, food security and democratization in Africa.