Food is power
The World Food Program says COVID-19 will bring about a famine of biblical proportions, so it is a good time to revisit why food has never just been about the simple act of eating. Food is history. Food is identity.
Image credit Elisabetta Demartis via Flickr CC.
Look at your plates when you eat. These imported grains of rice, corn and millet—that is imperialism.
The violence that accompanied European colonization of African people was a well-known fact. But while a lot of emphasis has leaned towards the political, military and economic changes forced upon colonized people, the matter of food—the very source of survival—is seldom considered. Yet food has always been a fundamental tool in the process of colonization. Through food, social and cultural norms are conveyed, and also violated. Indeed, one cannot properly understand colonization without taking into account the issue of food and eating.
In 1895, Britain annexed the future Kenya as an East African protectorate. However, the expansion of the British Empire was met with resistance in some parts of the protectorate. The British suppressed the opposition by using different methods, from divide-and-rule tactics to military campaigns, signing treaties with local rulers and controlling food to quell dissent.
The scorched-earth policy of burning crops and killing livestock proved to be a most effective method for suppressing rebellion and colonizing the population. In his book, Kenya Diary 1902-1906, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen describes official policy in matter of fact terms while reflecting on how during his many expeditions the burning of huts, crops, and livestock proved to be a very effective means of suppressing dissent and subduing the African native.
