An Ethnography of Hunger: Politics, Subsistence, and the Unpredictable Grace of the Sun

InAn Ethnography of HungerKristin D. Phillips examines how rural farmers in central Tanzania negotiate the interconnected projects of subsistence, politics, and rural development. Writing against stereotypical Western media images of spectacular famine in Africa, she examines how people live with-rather than die from-hunger. Through tracing the seasonal cycles of drought, plenty, and suffering and the political cycles of elections, development, and state extraction, Phillips studies hunger as a pattern of relationships and practices that organizes access to food and profoundly shapes agrarian lives and livelihoods. Amid extreme inequality and unpredictability, rural people pursue subsistence by alternating between-and sometimes combining-rights and reciprocity, a political form that she calls "subsistence citizenship." Phillips argues that studying subsistence is essential to understanding the persistence of global poverty, how people vote, and why development projects succeed or fail. 1. This book tells a complex story about food security, rural livelihoods, and community development among subsistence farmers in Tanzania. It tells a powerful story about tenacious survival. 2. A secondary storyline in the book is the coming to power of Tanzania's most controversial opposition politician, Tundu Lissu, in 2010 (currently Chief Opposition Whip in Parliament), in a relatively obscure pro-ruling party constituency in Central Tanzania (Singida East). This story has not been told widely elsewhere and it is growing in significance with Lissu's continually increasing influence and fame. There was an assassination attempt on Lissu in September 2017, which is raising questions about the current direction of Tanzanian politics under current President Magufuli. 3. In addition to a broad audience among scholars in contemporary African studies, anthropologists working on humanitarianism, hunger, NGOs, Africa, and globalization, and international studies scholars, this book is written to be accessible for undergraduate students and has strong potential for course adoption sales.