Famine that Kills Darfur, Sudan

by de Waal, Alex

• ISBN13: 9780195181630
• ISBN10: 0195181638
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In 2004, Darfur, Sudan was described as the "world's greatest humanitarian crisis." Twenty years previously, Darfur was also the site of a disastrous famine. Famine that Kills is a seminal account of that famine, and a social history of the region. In a new preface prepared for this revisededition, Alex de Waal analyzes the roots of the current conflict in land disputes, social disruption and impoverishment. Despite vast changes in the nature of famines and in the capacity of response, de Waal's original challenge to humanitarian theory and practice including a focus on the survivalstrategies of rural people has never been more relevant. Documenting the resilience of the people who suffered, it explains why many fewer died than had been predicted by outsiders. It is also a pathbreaking study of the causes of famine deaths, showing how outbreaks of infectious disease killedmore people than starvation. Now a classic in the field, Famine that Kills provides critical background and lessons of past intervention for a region that finds itself in another moment of humanitarian tragedy.

Author Biography

Alex de Waal is a Director of Justice Africa in London and a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University. He is the author of several books on famine, human rights, and conflict in Africa, and has been at the forefront of mobilizing African and international responses to these problems.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xxv
List of Tables	xxvi
List of Abbreviations	xxvii
Further Reading	xxviii
Introduction	1	(1)
Ethical Issues	2	(1)
Sources	3	(2)
Outline of the Argument	5	(4)
`Famine' in English	9	(24)
What is Famine?	9	(4)
The Most Common English Sense	13	(7)
Disaster Tourism	20	(4)
Recent Approaches to Understanding Famines	24	(5)
Who Cries `Famine'?	29	(4)
Darfur	33	(26)
Landscapes	33	(4)
Impressions of a Disaster Tourist	37	(6)
Nankose Village	43	(12)
Search for the Subsistent Tribal Peasant	55	(4)
The History and Concept of Famine	59	(19)
The Ancien Regime	60	(2)
`A Heap of Ruins': 1874--1916	62	(4)
Closed Districts: Darfur after 1916	66	(5)
All Manners of Suffering	71	(7)
Drought	78	(34)
A Shortage of Rain	78	(7)
`Sons and Daughters of Drought'	85	(6)
The Zaghawa: Social Transformatin in the Face of Drought	91	(13)
Causes of the Famine	104	(8)
Hunger	112	(29)
Fifteen Months of Hunger	112	(2)
Maa fi 'Esh: `There is no Food'	114	(4)
Purchases of Grain	118	(14)
Wild Foods	132	(4)
Other Foods	136	(5)
Destitution	141	(31)
A Way of Life under Threat	141	(1)
The Farmers of Jebel Si: A `Worst Case Scenario'	141	(11)
Livestock	152	(11)
A Case-Study of Mawashei Famine Camp	163	(9)
Death	172	(23)
`Allah Takes from the Rich, and from the Poor'	172	(1)
Methods	173	(3)
Mortality Data	176	(10)
Causes of Death	186	(9)
Relief	195	(32)
Perceptions of Outsiders	195	(1)
Indigenous Famine Relief	196	(8)
`Who is this Reagan?'	204	(9)
How Could it Have Been Done Better?	213	(14)
Other Famines	227	(18)
General Conclusions	227	(1)
The Famine in Dar Masalit	228	(9)
Famine in Western Bahr el Ghazal	237	(6)
Coda	243	(2)
References	245	(11)
Index	256