Seasonal hunger among the Ngoni and Ntumba of central Malaŵi

Abstract

Opening ParagraphThe cultural significance of regular ‘hunger periods’ in tropical Africa, however much it may be disputed by anthropologists, has for a long time been apparent to less objective observers. It is generally accepted by those concerned in the engagement of migrant labour that at certain regular times of the year the supply is greater than at others: and it is believed that the number of men presenting for engagement is related to the quantity of food available in the villages. This view, as will be shown below, is an over-simplification. Ogbu (1973), though he relates seasonal hunger among the Poka to labour migration, sees die latter as a cause rather than a result of the former. He apparently considers that migration reduces the number of agricultural workers to below an unstipulated critical level above which it might still be possible to produce a sufficiency of food at all seasons, provided that animal pests could be controlled and agricultural techniques made more efficient. Seasonal hunger among the Ibo of Onicha he blames on shortage of farmland, low yield, and high storage loss of foodstuffs. At first sight it might appear that the cultural concomitants of the hunger period contrast rather strikingly between the two populations; and yet the recurrent hunger period is recognized by the FAO and other authorities (though Miracle (1961) questions its existence) as being a phenomenon widespread in sub- Saharan Africa, and one which might in consequence be expected to result from similar or related causes in most of the situations in which it occurs.