Hunger by design: colonialism's legacy

The Blue Book explicitly warned that the production of food by African people in excess of their own requirements was undesirable, 'as it diminishes their incentive to labour'

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Shameful legacy: Land dispossession, the destruction of indigenous food systems, the criminalisation of informal trade and the concentration of food production and distribution were deliberate, legal acts, the effects of which endure today. Photo: Madelene Cronje

(Madelene Cronje)

The demographic character of South Africa's food and hunger crisis is often framed as a contemporary, post-1994 failure, resulting from unemployment, inequality or weak governance.

But in reality, the racial, geographic and class-based nature of present-day hunger draws its roots from a well-designed, carefully legislated and openly defended colonial system.

To understand why millions are hungry in a country with a globally enviable climate and land that produces an abundance of food, we need to revisit the archive and bear witness to what the colonial and apartheid state said about food when it constructed South Africa's political economy.

The archival record is candid.

By the late 19th century, African farmers across the Cape and KwaZulu, in particular, were producing surplus grain and livestock. Far from celebrating this, colonial authorities saw it as a threat.

The 1881 Blue Book of the Cape government documented surplus production by African populations, noting their use of technologies, commercial surpluses and labour stability. The Blue Book explicitly warned that the production of food by African people in excess of their own requirements was undesirable, “as it diminishes their incentive to labour”.

This position reflects the core logic of colonial governance in relation to the political nature of food. Food production and independence by African people undermined the colony’s labour needs. Hunger, by contrast, was a necessary element of the colonial labour system.