| | ROAPE's special issue (15/16) on 'The Roots of Famine' tackled this urgent problem with several excellent case studies. However, the later article by Mamdani (ROAPE 25) on the recurrent famines in Karamoja district, Uganda, fails to live up to this high standard. Mamdani's mode of argumentation is based on erroneous assumptions that lead to seriously misleading conclusions, not only for the specific case of Karamoja but also for others where pastoral and agropastoral peoples are facing crises. Mamdani attributes the tragic Karamoja famines to colonial rule. While he is correct that the increasingly severe famines in that stricken area cannot be understood apart from the impact of imperialism, the arguments he used to support his case are partial, incomplete and often factually incorrect. Even more serious, he bases his argument on assumptions strikingly similar to those of the British colonial rulers whose actions contributed to the present crisis. The faulty assumptions are not unique to him, and the issues involved go far beyond his article. |
