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Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan
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 revised edition, 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 survival strategies 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 killed more 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.
and lessons of past intervention for a region that finds itself in another moment of humanitarian tragedy.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2021
What an interesting book. I've been making a point of getting out of my comfort zone lately, and dipping my toe into books that aren't just history. This one is part history, part sociology, and partially a professional polemic. My understanding is that Alex de Waal is now an established and controversial figure when it comes to arguments about Sudan, but with the exception of the 2005 introduction, this book was largely written in 1989, by a much younger man.
Youth can be tremendously positive. The amount of energy that must have gone into collecting the data here is daunting. Darfur (at least in 1989) is an obscure part of a very complex and under-covered country. I'm sure he was working from many secondary sources, but the amount of information on the region that seems to be collected by the author himself is immense. The topic, as the title certainly doesn't hide, is the 1984-1985 famine in Darfur.
This is a book that's very concerned with definitions, and what famine means to Darfuris as compared to what it means to the English speaking world. For me, the descriptions of the resilience and ingenuity of the locals were more enlightening than de Waal's etymology of the word famine itself. I've certainly fallen into the trap of viewing famine victims as an indistinguishable mass of hungry dependents. This book utterly demolishes that idea, and makes the staggering diversity of responses and experiences clear. Or rather the book scratches the surface and makes it clear that there's a universe of interest and complexity that most news consumers and aid agencies are missing.
The flip side of his youth is the fact that some of de Waal's prescriptions seem a bit silly. He's young! He knows better, and he has some demands! It's striking how he is both cognizant of how difficult it was for the aid agencies to do the mediocre job they did in the 1980s, and blithely recommending that they do an infinitely more complex, expensive and sensitive job the next time. Some passages of advice seem flatly contradictory from one paragraph to the next. I suspect it's now very clear to de Waal, especially after the mess foreign interests made of crises in Darfur and South Sudan, how unrealistic his initial demands were. But we don't move forward without unrealistic expectations. If the author's introduction is to be believed, it has had a positive impact on the way the world views the challenge of famine.
For me, the book was most useful in the way that it suggested a framework for thinking about Darfur. It suggested to me, as no doubt too many things do, a scenario out of science fiction. Darfur in the 1980s was very much a post-apocalyptic society. Up until the 1910s there was an independent sultanate of Darfur. As recently as the early 1800s, the Darfuri merchants were some of the richest to be found in Cairo, half a continent away. The intervening centuries have been extraordinarily hard. Darfur became a punching bag for the Turkish, the Mahdists, the British, the Sudanese government and many, many more. This brought about significant depopulation. The landscape seems littered with ethnic and occupational groups that are still desperately trying to figure out their role after the demise of the Sultanate. If you want to know what Europe looked like a couple hundred years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, you could probably do worse than looking at Sudan in the 1980s.
The horror, of course, is that this was all before the 2003-2004 genocide and the follow-on wars that made Darfur a universally recognized symbol of death and destruction. This book was dense, and became a bit of a slog with its careful, dry descriptions of mass destitution, but it provides a useful base of knowledge on the region and its struggles.
Youth can be tremendously positive. The amount of energy that must have gone into collecting the data here is daunting. Darfur (at least in 1989) is an obscure part of a very complex and under-covered country. I'm sure he was working from many secondary sources, but the amount of information on the region that seems to be collected by the author himself is immense. The topic, as the title certainly doesn't hide, is the 1984-1985 famine in Darfur.
This is a book that's very concerned with definitions, and what famine means to Darfuris as compared to what it means to the English speaking world. For me, the descriptions of the resilience and ingenuity of the locals were more enlightening than de Waal's etymology of the word famine itself. I've certainly fallen into the trap of viewing famine victims as an indistinguishable mass of hungry dependents. This book utterly demolishes that idea, and makes the staggering diversity of responses and experiences clear. Or rather the book scratches the surface and makes it clear that there's a universe of interest and complexity that most news consumers and aid agencies are missing.
The flip side of his youth is the fact that some of de Waal's prescriptions seem a bit silly. He's young! He knows better, and he has some demands! It's striking how he is both cognizant of how difficult it was for the aid agencies to do the mediocre job they did in the 1980s, and blithely recommending that they do an infinitely more complex, expensive and sensitive job the next time. Some passages of advice seem flatly contradictory from one paragraph to the next. I suspect it's now very clear to de Waal, especially after the mess foreign interests made of crises in Darfur and South Sudan, how unrealistic his initial demands were. But we don't move forward without unrealistic expectations. If the author's introduction is to be believed, it has had a positive impact on the way the world views the challenge of famine.
For me, the book was most useful in the way that it suggested a framework for thinking about Darfur. It suggested to me, as no doubt too many things do, a scenario out of science fiction. Darfur in the 1980s was very much a post-apocalyptic society. Up until the 1910s there was an independent sultanate of Darfur. As recently as the early 1800s, the Darfuri merchants were some of the richest to be found in Cairo, half a continent away. The intervening centuries have been extraordinarily hard. Darfur became a punching bag for the Turkish, the Mahdists, the British, the Sudanese government and many, many more. This brought about significant depopulation. The landscape seems littered with ethnic and occupational groups that are still desperately trying to figure out their role after the demise of the Sultanate. If you want to know what Europe looked like a couple hundred years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, you could probably do worse than looking at Sudan in the 1980s.
The horror, of course, is that this was all before the 2003-2004 genocide and the follow-on wars that made Darfur a universally recognized symbol of death and destruction. This book was dense, and became a bit of a slog with its careful, dry descriptions of mass destitution, but it provides a useful base of knowledge on the region and its struggles.
August 15, 2020
A good book documenting the kind of famine that kills, unlike the famine that multiplies or the famine that enriches. Another somebody using the pain and suffering of others to become some sort of expert and hopefully buy a bigger house.
April 28, 2016
de Waal is de man!
One of the best endings to a book, especially a nonfiction book, I have ever read.
In addition (this may unintentionally come off as snobbish) - I honestly rarely need to look up words, and Mr Alex had me underlining and Googling on many occasions.
Voracious learners and readers will be fascinated by his detailed analysis; the scrutiny with which he examines and outlays the landscape, people and institutions determining the factors of famine. You are rest assured of his expertise.
As one reads more about international development, you become painfully aware that the knowledge to rectify the industry is out there - but ignored.
There was one hilarious chart in the midst of generally astute ones: p. 187's "Starvation Model" in the chapter named "Death", which can be replicated here:
destitution --> starvation --> death
Sometimes all the details cloud the obvious. But I was overall delighted to learn more of the region; Alex de Waal's description of famine that kills is not only technically masterful, but sensually immersive. He dotted some of the pages with his own sketchings of urban and rural landscapes, and portrayed dire circumstances with a stern sensitivity. He didn't need to embellish on the suffering of those in famine to draw in the reader and make his argument, and he emphatically yet tactfully articulated the faults of aid agencies and policy analysts in the region.
Fun fact: I realized a long-mysterious connection to one of my favorite foods, the peanut, to Sudan. In Tel Aviv last year, an Arab-Israeli friend called them "Sudanese beans". I now know by reading this book that Sudan has a very large and sustained "ground nut" agriculture - peanuts grow on the ground - and thus, the mysterious nicknaming is solved.
One of the best endings to a book, especially a nonfiction book, I have ever read.
In addition (this may unintentionally come off as snobbish) - I honestly rarely need to look up words, and Mr Alex had me underlining and Googling on many occasions.
Voracious learners and readers will be fascinated by his detailed analysis; the scrutiny with which he examines and outlays the landscape, people and institutions determining the factors of famine. You are rest assured of his expertise.
As one reads more about international development, you become painfully aware that the knowledge to rectify the industry is out there - but ignored.
There was one hilarious chart in the midst of generally astute ones: p. 187's "Starvation Model" in the chapter named "Death", which can be replicated here:
destitution --> starvation --> death
Sometimes all the details cloud the obvious. But I was overall delighted to learn more of the region; Alex de Waal's description of famine that kills is not only technically masterful, but sensually immersive. He dotted some of the pages with his own sketchings of urban and rural landscapes, and portrayed dire circumstances with a stern sensitivity. He didn't need to embellish on the suffering of those in famine to draw in the reader and make his argument, and he emphatically yet tactfully articulated the faults of aid agencies and policy analysts in the region.
Fun fact: I realized a long-mysterious connection to one of my favorite foods, the peanut, to Sudan. In Tel Aviv last year, an Arab-Israeli friend called them "Sudanese beans". I now know by reading this book that Sudan has a very large and sustained "ground nut" agriculture - peanuts grow on the ground - and thus, the mysterious nicknaming is solved.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews