Food and Power in Africa and Asia

How have people sought and fought power by managing the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food? This class will draw on case studies from premodern, colonial, and revolutionary contexts to explore how people in China, India, and Eastern and Southern Africa have connected food with power. We will explore how, in some of these contexts, managing the food supply allowed states, societies, and families to delineate legitimate power, moral rules, and social obligations. And we will examine what happened with scarcity, starvation, and collapse. Exploring both empirical details and ethical commitments, the course will allow us to use History to understand and assess divergent policies, and their implications.