Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:46:07.347Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Serving “the Uses of Life”: Gender, History, and Food Security in a Cassava Value Chain Scheme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2022

Heidi Gengenbach Open the ORCID record for Heidi Gengenbach [Opens in a new window] ,
Alcino Armindo Comé  and
Justino Baptiste Nhabinde
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gengenbach, Comé, and Nhabinde historicize women’s responses to an agricultural “value chain” in Zavala, Mozambique. Inspired by the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A), the initiative aims to reduce hunger by converting cassava to industrial use for SABMiller’s Impala beer. Women chafed at the proposed remaking of an agrarian foodway long anchored by this edible commodity. Cassava’s inseparable dietary and market value in precolonial times intensified under Portuguese rule even as colonizers disdained it as a feminine “subsistence” crop and then claimed its commercial potential. Weaponizing this gendered binary yet needing women’s support, the Impala scheme has struggled to achieve GR4A food security goals.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article reconstruit historiquement la réponse des femmes comme « Chaîne de valeur » agricole à Zavala, Mozambique. Inspirée par l’Alliance pour une révolution verte en Afrique (AGRA), l’initiative vise à réduire la faim en convertissant le manioc à un usage industriel pour la bière Impala de SABMiller. Les femmes ont été contrariées par la proposition de refonte d’une voie alimentaire agraire longtemps ancrée dans cette denrée comestible. Les valeurs alimentaires agraire et marchandes inséparables du manioc à l’époque précoloniale se sont intensifiés sous la domination portugaise, alors même que les colonisateurs le dédaignaient comme une culture féminine de « subsistance » et revendiquaient ensuite son potentiel commercial. Militarisant cette binarité de genre tout en ayant besoin du soutien des femmes, le schéma d’Impala a eu du mal à atteindre les objectifs de sécurité alimentaire AGRA.

Resumo

Resumo

Neste artigo, procede-se à historicização da resposta das mulheres a uma “cadeia de valor” agrícola no distrito de Zavala, Moçambique. Inspirada na Revolução Verde para a África (Green Revolution for Africa – GR4A), a iniciativa destina-se a mitigar a fome convertendo a produção de mandioca para uso industrial pela cerveja Impala, da empresa SABMiller. A proposta de transformação de uma cadeia alimentar há muito sustentada por este produto agrícola impacientou as mulheres. O indestrinçável valor alimentar e de mercado da mandioca no período pré-colonial aumentou ainda mais sob o regime português, mesmo se os colonizadores a desvalorizavam, classificando-a como um cultivo “de subsistência” feminino, ao mesmo tempo que elogiavam o seu potencial comercial. Tirando partido deste binarismo de género mas precisando do apoio das mulheres, o negócio da Impala tem enfrentado dificuldades para atingir os objetivos de segurança alimentar da GR4A.

Keywords

Mozambiquecassavagenderfood securityvalue chain
Type
Forum: Lost in Translation: Pro-Poor Development in the Green Revolution for Africa
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 93 - 117
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archival Sources

Fundo do Século XIX, Cota, 8.38 Ca2. Correspondência recebida do comando Militar de Zavalla. “Informação referente ao mês de Dezembro de 1898.”Google Scholar
Fundo do Século XIX, Cota, 8.38 Ca2. Correspondência recebida do comando Militar de Zavalla. “Informação referente ao mês de Dezembro de 1898.”Google Scholar

References

Adam, Yussuf. 2006. Cooperativização na agricultura e modificação das relações de produção no período colonial em Moçambique. Maputo: Promédia.Google Scholar
Alpers, Edward A. 2018. “‘Le caractère d’une traite d’esclaves déguisée (the nature of a disguised slave trade)’? Labor recruitment for La Réunion at Portuguese Mozambique, 1887–1889.” Ufahamu 40 (1): 3–32.10.5070/F7401037782CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrade, Alfredo Freire de. 1894. “Explorações Portuguezas em Lourenço Marques e Inhambane: Relatórios da Commissão de Limitação de Fronteira de Lourenço Marques.” Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa 13 (1–2): 295–391.Google Scholar
Aragón, Miguel, Barreto, Avertino, and Epstein, Paul R.. 1998. “Drought and Health Implications in Mozambique.” Medicine & Global Survival 5 (1): 42–49.Google Scholar
Botelho, Sebastião Xavier. 1835. Memória Estatística Sobre os Domínios Portuguezes na África Oriental. 2 vols. Lisbon: Typ. de José Baptista Morando.Google Scholar
Cabral, Augusto. 1910. Raças, Usos e Costumes dos Indígenas do Districto de Inhambane. Lourenço Marques: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Capela, José. 1973. O Vinho para o Preto: Notas e Textos sobre a Exportação do Vinho para África. Porto, Portugal: Afrontamento.Google Scholar
Cardoso, Augusto. 1907. Relatório do Governador 1906 a 1907. Lourenço Marques: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Carney, Judith, and Rosomoff, Richard Nicholas. 2011. In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carswell, Grace. 2003. “Food Crops as Cash Crops: The Case of Colonial Kigezi, Uganda.” Journal of Agrarian Change 3 (4): 521–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chewin, Linell and Delius, Peter. 2020. “The Northeastern Factor in South African History: Reevaluating the Volume of the Slave Trade out of Delagoa Bay and its Impact on its Hinterland in the Early Nineteenth Century.” Journal of African History 61 (1): 89–110.10.1017/S0021853720000055CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Companhia Industrial de Dongane (CID). 1961. Produção e Industrialização da Mandioca em Moçambique 7. Lourenço Marques: CID.Google Scholar
“Cultura da Mandioca.” 1932. Boletim Geral das Colónias 8 (290): 224.Google Scholar
e Silva, Delgado, dos Santos, Raúl Ribeiro. 1969. “Relatorio da Inspeccao Ordinaria à Junta Local de Quissico.” Lourenço Marques: Inspecção dos Serviços Administrativos e dos Negócios Indigenas (ISANI).Google Scholar
e Silva, Delgado, dos Santos, Raúl Ribeiro. 1970. “Relatorio da Inspecção Ordinária à Circunscrição de Zavala.” Lourenço Marques: ISANI.Google Scholar
Direito, Bárbara. 2015. “Land and Colonialism in Mozambique: Policies and Practice in Inhambane, c.1900–c.1940.” Journal of Southern African Studies 39 (2): 353–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domingos, Nuno. 2016. “Na Pista da Mandioca Colonial e Pós-Colonial: Das formas de representação do global.” In Estudos Sobre a Globalização, edited by Curto, D. R., 319–51. Lisbon: Edições 70.Google Scholar
Earthy, E. Dora. 1933. Valenge Women: The Social and Economic Life of the Valenge Women of Portuguese East Africa. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Elton, Frederick. 1872. “Journal of an Exploration of the Limpopo River.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 42: 1–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enes, António. 1893. Moçambique: relatório apresentado ao Governo de sua magestade. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Erskine, Vincent. 1875. “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa, in 1871–1872.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 45: 45–128.10.2307/1798705CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Estado Geral das Culturas e Previsão das Colheitas.” 1956. Gazeta do Agricultor 8: 318.Google Scholar
Fuller, Charles E. 1955. An Ethnohistoric Study of Continuity and Change in Gwambe Culture. Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Gengenbach, Heidi. 2020. “From cradle to chain? Gendered struggles for cassava commercialisation in Mozambique.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies 41 (2): 224–42.10.1080/02255189.2019.1570088CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gengenbach, Heidi, Bassett, Thomas, Moseley, William, Munro, William, and Schurman, Rachel. 2018. “Limits of the New Green Revolution for Africa: Reconceptualising Gendered Agricultural Value Chains.” The Geographical Journal 184: 208–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grilo, Francisco Monteiro. 1929. “Moçambique Agrícola.” Boletim da Agência Geral das Colónias 50: 256–84.Google Scholar
Grupo de Trabalho de Promoção Social de Moçambique (GTPSM). 1964. Promoção Social em Moçambique. Lisbon: Junto do Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Política Ultramarina.Google Scholar
Harries, Patrick. 1981. “Slavery, Social Incorporation and Surplus Extraction: The Nature of Free and Unfree Labour in South-East Africa.” Journal of African History 22 (3): 309–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harries, Patrick. 1994. Work, Culture, and Identity in Mozambique: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860–1910. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Harries, Patrick. 2014. “Slavery, Indenture and Migrant Labour: Maritime Immigration from Mozambique to the Cape, c.1780–1880.” African Studies 73 (3): 323–40.10.1080/00020184.2014.962871CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henriques, C. Correa. 1916. Distrito de Inhambane Relatório do Governador, 1913–1915. Lourenco Marques: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 2018. Cassava Production Guidelines for Food Security and Adaptation to Climate Change in Asia and Africa. Vienna: IAEA.Google Scholar
Isaacman, Allen. 1996. Cotton Is the Mother of Poverty: Peasants, Work and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique, 1938–1961. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Juhé-Beaulaton, Dominique. 2014. “De l’igname au manioc dans le golfe de Guinée: traite des esclaves et alimentation au royaume du Danhomè (XVIIe-XIXe siècle).” Afriques 5: 1–28.Google Scholar
Karasch, M. 2000. “Manioc.” In Cambridge World History of Food, edited by Kiple, Kenneth and Ornelas, Kriemhild Conee, 181–87. London: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longle, Armando. 1886. “De Inhambane a Lourenço Marques.” Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa [BSGL] 6: 13–37.Google Scholar
Lyne, Robert Nunez. 1913. Mozambique: Its Agricultural Development. London: T. Fisher.Google Scholar
Malakata, Michael. 2007. “Mozambique Aims to Lead Green Revolution.” March 27. https://www.scidev.net/global/news/mozambique-aims-to-lead-green-revolution.Google Scholar
Mallinson, Theresa. 2011. “SABMiller Launches ‘Entry-level’ Cassava Beer.” November 2. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-11-02-sabmiller-launches-entry-level-cassava-beer.Google Scholar
Mauch, Karl. 1969. The Journals of Carl Mauch: His Travels in the Transvaal and Rhodesia, 1869–1872. Salisbury: National Archives of Rhodesia.Google Scholar
McLeod, Lyons. 1860. Travels in Eastern Africa. 2 vols. London: Hurst & Blackett.Google Scholar
Ministério da Agricultura, Républica de Moçambique (MINAG). 2010. “Strategic Plan for Agricultural Development Pedsa 2010-2019.” 71. Maputo: MINAG.Google Scholar
Negin, Joel, Remans, Roseline, Karuti, Susan, and Fanzo, Jessica C.. 2009. “Integrating a Broader Notion of Food Security and Gender Empowerment into the African Green Revolution.” Food Security 1 (3): 351–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newitt, Malyn. 1995. A History of Mozambique. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Newitt, Malyn. 2008. “Mozambique Island: The Rise and Decline of a Colonial Port City.” In Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World, edited by Brockey, Liam Matthew, 105–127. Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Kaori. 2009. “Beyond ‘Exotic Groceries’: Tapioca/Cassava/Manioc, a Hidden Commodity of Empires and Globalisation.” Commodities of Empire Working Paper No. 10. London: The Open University. In Global Histories, Imperial Commodities, Local Interactions, edited by Curry-Machado, Jonathan, 224–47. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Picolo, Melanie, Barros, Iracema, Joyeux, Mathieu, Gottwalt, Allison, Possolo, Edna, Sigauque, Betuel, and Kavle, Justine A.. 2018. “Rethinking Integrated Nutrition‐Health Strategies to Address Micronutrient Deficiencies in Children under Five in Mozambique.” Maternal & Child Nutrition 15: 12721–80.Google Scholar
Pimenta, Atouguia. 1940. “Bebidas Cafreais.” Moçambique: Documentário Trimestral 23: 5–41.Google Scholar
Pires, Júlio Augusto. 1947. “Relatorio das Inspecções Ordinárias à Comissão Municipal de Inhambane.” Lourenço Marques: Inspecção dos Serviços Administrativos e dos Negócios Indigenas.Google Scholar
“Producções do Districto de Moçambique.” 1881. Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Moçambique 1 (3): 51–52.Google Scholar
Reis, Carlos Manuel dos Santos. 1959. “Alimentação e Variações Somáticas em Trabalhadores Aborígenes.” Separata de Conferência Inter-Africana de Nutrição: Comunicações 3 (2): 561–608.Google Scholar
Ribeiro, João Eduardo. 1869. “Inhambane: Relatório do Governador (1865).” Annaes do Concelho Ultramarino, Parte Não Oficial 7–8: 30–97.Google Scholar
Salt, Henry. 1816. A Voyage to Abyssinia. Philadelphia: M. Carey.Google Scholar
Schwalybach, Fernando Augusto. 1881. “Exploração do Lago Nharrime.” BSGL 1 (6): 141–44.Google Scholar
Serrano, J. A. Matheus. 1894. “De Makiki (Antiga Incomancimba) a Inhambane, pelo Uâluize.” BSGL 13 (6): 397–447.Google Scholar
Silva, Augusto. 1927. “Carta de Inhambane: Bebidas fermentadas.” Notícias.Google Scholar
Silva, Mário Augusto de Andrade. 1955. “O Problema Alimentar de Moçambique.” Separata dos Anais do Instituto de Medicina Tropical 12 (4): 692–712.Google Scholar
Sousa, Gabriel Soares de. 1971. Tratado descritivo do Brasil em 1587. 4th edition. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional.Google Scholar
Teixeira, Custódio Jose António. 1918. “Descripção dos Rios da Bahia de Lourenço Marques (1838).” Arquivo das Colónias 2 (8): 61–5.Google Scholar
Vansina, Jan. 1979. “Finding Food and the History of Precolonial Equatorial Africa: A Plea.” African Economic History 7: 9–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vansina, Jan. 1997. “Histoire du manioc en Afrique centrale avant 1850.” Paideuma 43: 255–79.Google Scholar
Varella, Joaquim José. 1954. “Descripção da Capitania de Moçambique e Suas Povoações e Produções, Pertencentes a Coroa de Portugal (1788).” In Fontes para a História, Geografia e Comércio de Moçambique: Século XVIII, edited by de Carvalho Dias, Luís Fernando, PP. Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar.Google Scholar
Vicente da Gama, José. 1859. Almanach civil eclesiástico histórico-administrativo da Província de Moçambique para o anno de 1859, 3º depois do bissexto. Moçambique: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Vieira, Carlos Augusto de Melo. 1934. “A Agricultura.” In Primeira Exposição Colonial Portuguesa. Porto.Google Scholar
Von Oppen, Achim. 1991. “Cassava, ‘The Lazy Man’s Food’? Indigenous agricultural innovation and dietary change in Northwestern Zambia (ca. 1650–1970).” Food and Foodways 5 (1): 15–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, William M. 1800. Journal of a Voyage Performed in the Lion Extra Indiaman, from Madras to Columbo and Da Lagoa Bay. London: John Stockdale.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2019. “World Development Indicators.” https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators.Google Scholar
Xavier, Alfredo Augusto Caldas. 1881. “O Inharrime e as Guerras Zavallas.” BSGL 7–8: 479–528.Google Scholar
Xavier, Alfredo Augusto Caldas. 1894. “Reconhecimento do Limpopo: Os Territórios ao Sul do Save e os Vatuas.” BSGL 13: 129–75.Google Scholar