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In
the latter half of the 20th century, hunger and famine
have become virtually commonplace in many parts of
Africa. Perhaps the most shocking famine of recent
times occurred in Ethiopia between 1984 and 1985,
killing almost one million people. Despite an increased
awareness of the immediacy of drought and famine,
Africa currently faces a crisis more desperate than
ever before, largely due to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS
throughout the continent.
According
to the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP),
there are currently 38 million people at risk of starvation
in Africa. While approximately 11 million of these
people are Ethiopians, the hardest hit countries are
in southern Africa. The six countries most in need
of aid, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia
and Zimbabwe, account for over 14.4 million of Africa’s
hungry. Despite all of the global progress in agriculture
and famine relief since the 1980s, there are several
reasons why the food crisis Africa now faces will
be among its most devastating, not only to Ethiopia
but to the rest of the continent as well.
Among
the factors that have led to the current crisis, the
most obvious is weather. Over the past year, many
African countries have been subject to extreme weather,
varying from flooding to lengthy droughts that have
weakened and destroyed crops. Some areas have experienced
as many as four consecutive years of insufficient
seasonal rains. The effect of these poor weather conditions
has been further exacerbated by the agricultural practices
currently followed throughout much of the continent.
Whereas in the past, many African nations grew hardy
cereals, the staple crop has, to a great extent, shifted
to maize. This non-indigenous crop is rain-fed, and
has a low resistance to droughts.
Poor
governance has also contributed to Africa’s current
dilemma. In Zambia, where about 3 million people are
faced with severe hunger, the government recently
turned away 50,000 tons of donated food aid. The food
was rejected by President Levy Mwanawasa's government
because it was genetically modified. Although there
has been some controversy over GM foods, environmental
concerns can be addressed through milling, and despite
the presence of GM food within the American diet for
the past seven years, scientists have found no conclusive
evidence of harmful effects. Despite this, even while
neighboring countries accepted GM food aid, the Zambian
government has stuck to the precautionary principle,
accepting the risk that its people may starve rather
than allowing GM food to be distributed.
Another
example of poor governance is found in Zimbabwe, where
over half of their 11.4 million people face starvation.
Even as support from the IMF was suspended due to
the government’s failure to meet budgetary goals,
hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on the
war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet another
consequence of poor government, the GDP of Zimbabwe
declined by 6.5 percent in 2001, making this one of
the world’s fastest shrinking economies. Usually
a net exporter of food, Zimbabwe’s farms have
been negatively affected not only by the weather,
but also by President Robert Mugabe’s controversial
and violent land redistribution programme. The programme’s
method of evicting white farmers in order to grant
the lands to blacks, while giving no consideration
to their level of agricultural competence, has left
what was a highly productive industry in a state of
serious decline. Since this programme started, the
amount of land planted and crops harvested by commercial
farmers has decreased every year, and hundreds of
thousands of farm workers have found themselves out
of work. The devastating impact of Mugabe’s programme
has wiped out food stocks that, in the past, had been
held in preparation for a drought, making the effects
of poor weather conditions even more dire.
Poor
weather and government are important concerns that
have, in the past, contributed to all of Africa’s
food crises. Today there is a relatively new factor
that contributes at least as much to current problems.
In the areas most highly affected by starvation conditions,
an average of between 20 and 25 percent of the adult
population are infected by HIV/AIDS. This condition
contributes doubly to food shortage difficulties.
First, those who are infected need significantly more
food than normal. Without extra sustenance, the virus
spreads even more rapidly, consuming the health of
an infected person. Additionally, the virus progressively
undermines the ability to work, leaving families with
ever decreasing incomes, while driving down overall
agricultural productivity. Unlike in the past, when
people who endured a food shortage could recover by
taking advantage of the return of good weather, the
current prevalence of HIV/AIDS means people will be
more likely to die or be unable to recover from periods
of starvation.
The
forecast is not positive either. In 2003, it’s
likely that El Niño conditions will
bring about more poor farming weather, subjecting
the people of Africa to another year of food shortages.
Also, the HIV/AIDS virus has been killing off parents
in great numbers, often leaving children to be raised
by a single grandparent. Not only does this deprive
children of their loved ones, but it also leaves them
without an adult from whom they can gain knowledge
such as farming, and often forces them to drop out
of school in order to find work.
After
the world witnessed the devastating effects of the
famine of the mid-80s on Ethiopia, there was a global
decision that such devastation would never be allowed
to happen again. However, almost 20 years later Africa
has found itself in the midst of a famine that will
likely be its worst ever. It’s too late to prevent
the conditions that led to this crisis from developing,
but with progressive action it’s possible to
provide the people of Africa with the technology and
knowledge to avoid such a calamity in the future.
In the meantime, Africa’s hopes lie with organizations
like WFP and the Consortium for the South African
Famine Emergency (C-SAFE), whose efforts are devoted
to feeding the millions of starving people throughout
the continent. Their work has only just begun.
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