An Ethnography of Hunger: Politics, Subsistence, and the Unpredictable Grace of the Sun

244 Pages·2018·3.505 MB·English

by  Kristin Phillips

An
thnography
E
of unger
H
Politics, Subsistence, and the
Unpredictable Grace of the Sun
Kristin D. Phillips
An ETHNOGRAPHY of HUNGER
FRAMING THE GLOBAL BOOK SERIES
The Framing the Global project, an initiative of Indiana
University Press and the Indiana University Center
for the Study of Global Change, is funded by the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Hilary E. Kahn and Deborah Piston-Hatlen, Series Editors
Advisory Committee
Alfred C. Aman Jr.
Eduardo Brondizio
Maria Bucur
Bruce L. Jaffee
Patrick O’Meara
Radhika Parameswaran
Richard R. Wilk
An ETHNOGR APH Y
of HU NGER
Politics, Subsistence, and the
Unpredictable Grace of the Sun
Kristin D. Phillips
Indiana University Press
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2018 by Kristin D. Phillips
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Phillips, Kristin, author.
Title: An ethnography of hunger : politics, subsistence, and the
unpredictable grace of the sun / Kristin Phillips.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2018. | Series: Framing
the global book series | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018013046 (print) | LCCN 2018025310 (ebook) | ISBN
9780253038401 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253038364 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780253038371 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Subsistence economy—Tanzania. | Food security—Social
aspects—Tanzania. | Food security—Political aspects—Tanzania.
Classification: LCC HC885.Z9 (ebook) | LCC HC885.Z9 P61593 2018 (print) | DDC
339.46096782—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013046
1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
To Jim, Burke, and Marcus

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Note on Language and Translation xxiii
Introduction: Subsistence Citizenship 1
Part I: The Frames of Subsistence in Singida:
Cosmology, Ethnography, History
1 Hunger in Relief: Village Life and Livelihood 25
2 The Unpredictable Grace of the Sun: Cosmology, Conquest,
and the Politics of Subsistence 48
Part II: The Power of the Poor on the Threshold of Subsistence
3 We Shall Meet at the Pot of Ugali: Sociality, Differentiation, and
Diversion in the Distribution of Food 79
4 Crying, Denying, and Surviving Rural Hunger 106
Part III: Subsistence Citizenship
5 Subsistence versus Development 131
6 Patronage, Rights, and the Idioms of Rural Citizenship 151
Conclusion: The Seasons of Subsistence and Citizenship 177
Bibliography 183
Index 201

Preface
In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with
rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are
starving. . . . Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big:
fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying
and warring and emigrating to read your book. . . . Among your characters
you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp
nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies
on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must
look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no history; such diversions ruin the
dramatic moment. Moans are good. She must never say anything about herself
in the dialogue except to speak of her (unspeakable) suffering.
Binyavanga Wainaina, How to Write about Africa
6-Day Visit to Rural African Village Completely Transforms Woman’s
Facebook Profile Picture
2014 headline from satirical newspaper The Onion
T
renchant critiques of the Global North’s representations of the African
continent mark our new millennium. Often articulated as satire, such critiques—
of literature, film, travelogues, Western media, academic and aid-industry publi-
cations, and more recently, social media—poke fun at projected ideas of “Africa”
as utterly primitive, desperately hungry, hopelessly broken, or wholly unspoilt.
Such pervasive (yet contradictory) images highlight the personal insecurities,
political and economic agendas, superficiality, and what Stephen Ellis (2011)
aptly referred to as a singular “unoriginality” that undergirds so many repre-
sentations of African contexts to Western publics today. Tongue-in-cheek, these
satires present readers with the most hackneyed and effective tropes they might
employ to reduce Africa to a single country, and a billion Africans’ lives to—what
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009) calls—a “single story.”
A 2012 article in the satirical newspaper The Onion mocks the way in which
media depictions render “Africa” not merely a site of death, dearth, and disaster,
but itself the explanation for them:
Africa, which affects upwards of 40 million new residents annually, has only
grown more deadly over the years. According to WHO figures, many of the
afflicted die from Africa or Africa-related complications before they even
ix