Zambia’s political famine: an immoral balancing act

Zambia’s political famine: an immoral balancing act

      795 million people around the world live in extreme starvation - that’s one in nine humans who wake up every morning without knowing if they will eat a single meal that day. Here in the United States, most of us take our food security for granted. We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want, and more often than not, we end up wasting valuable sources of nutrition. On the other end of the spectrum is Zambia, a small country in sub-saharan Africa, holding one of the lowest food security rankings on a global scale (Evans). The food crisis in Zambia stands apart from others, as it cannot be blamed on any natural phenomenon. This famine is solely man-made; created by foreign commercial farmers who forced natives out of their homes, and worsened by the government who failed to care.   

       One of the root causes of famine in Zambia has to do with agricultural competition from other nations, particularly the forceful implementation of foreign commercial farming. In the past couple years, white farmers who were exiled from the neighboring country of Zimbabwe - as well as immigrants from various other countries - have been usurping the rural villages and agricultural systems already present, and replacing it with their own commercial farming methods (Forced). Given that these immigrants come from more developed countries, they have greater access to technology and superior farming techniques, which allow them to produce significantly higher amounts of crops than the natives’ intensive subsistence form of agriculture (Stunning). This new system has rendered countless citizens homeless and hungry, with a whopping 48% of the population undernourished (WFP), yet the government turns a blind eye to the suffering of its people. Instead of aiding the citizens in need of food and shelter, the Zambian government worsens the situation by supporting the commercial farmers. The reason for this? Pure selfishness: the lucrative business that the immigrants are able to achieve benefits the government itself, while blatantly disregarding the needs of the natives. 

      It isn’t the first time the government’s incompetence has lead to exaggerated famine. Back in 2002, when crop production was at an all time low due to severe drought, the country had received numerous food donations from America and other countries through the UN. However, government officials withheld the resources from their citizens, supposedly because they were concerned about harmful side effects from genetically modified corn. The president later disclosed it was primarily due to concerns of how accepting donations would affect international economic relations (Winter). With the basic human rights of their citizens on the line, this was clearly not an acceptable decision for the government to make. Henry E. Cauvinaug, a journalist for the New York Times, said it best: “At some level, the debate turned into an undeclared trade dispute with disregard to millions of lives in the balance."

      This immoral balancing act has already brought mass-starvation upon Zambia, and will only continue to take victims until a serious change occurs. The people in power must learn to be sympathetic towards the suffering of their people, and make an effort to change the way the country is being run.  Denying citizens a basic source of sustenance is a direct violation of fundamental human rights, no matter what fabricated reasons the government has to offer. 

Works cited:

Cauvin, Henri E. “Between Famine and Politics, Zambians Starve.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Aug. 2002, www.nytimes.com/2002/08/30/world/between-famine-and-politics-zambians-starve.html.

Evans, Lisa. “Food Security Index: Why Does the UK Have the Worst Record of Western European Countries?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 July 2012, www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jul/10/food-security-index.

“‘Forced to Leave’ | Commercial Farming and Displacement in Zambia.” Human Rights Watch, 3 Nov. 2017, www.hrw.org/report/2017/10/25/forced-leave/commercial-farming-and-displacement-zambia.

“Stunning Success Of White Farmers In Zambia.” Africacrisis.org, rense.com/general47/stunningsuccessofwhite.htm. 

Winter, Caroline. “Could Zambia Become Africa's Food Bowl?” ABC Rural, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 31 Mar. 2016, www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-03-31/zambia-plans-to-become-africa-foodbowl/7288472.

WFP. “10 Facts About Hunger In Zambia .” Fighting Hunger Worldwide, United Nations World Food Programme, 3 Mar. 2015, www.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-hunger-zambia.