The Story of an African Famine
Gender and Famine in Twentieth-Century Malawi

This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources.

Megan Vaughan (Author)

9780521035514, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 February 2007

192 pages
23.3 x 15.5 x 1.2 cm, 0.281 kg

This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources, ranging from Colonial Office documentation to the songs of women who lived through the tragedy. The analysis of the causes and development of the famine takes the reader through a detailed agricultural and social history of Southern Malwai in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing in particular on the nature of social and economic stratification, changes in kinship systems and the position of women and placing all this within the wider context of the impact of colonial rule.

List of maps
List of illustrations
Preface
Glossary
Introduction
1. The 1949 famine
2. Famine as a Malthusian crisis
3. Famine as a failure of the market
4. Food entitlement and employment
5. Gender and famine
6. After the famine: a conclusion
Notes
List of oral interviews
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]