Poverty, Policy, And Food Security In Southern Africa
Looking at the ability of southern Africa to feed itself, the essays in this book lay out the complex political and economic connections the countries of the region have with their giant neighbor and sometime adversary, as well as among themselves. The authors (particularly Stephen R. Lewis, Jr.) make the point that South Africa's coercive power may be constrained by its need for productive economic links with the others. The editor and various authors argue for a comprehensive Western plan for economic aid-both bilateral and regional-to South Africa's neighbors.
Related
For much of Africa this year, immediate threats to survival dominated national agendas. In the extreme north and south, Libya and South Africa attacked the territory of weaker neighbors. Less noticed but far more widely devastating, a harsh drought destroyed crops across the continent, confronting more than 20 million people with the prospect of starvation. Declining rates of per capita food production over the last decade, coupled with escalating debt and falling returns on exports, left many African states at the margins of existence--at least according to Western calculations. And at year's end, a military coup abruptly ended four years of American-style democratic government in Africa's largest nation, Nigeria, renewing fears about political upheaval throughout the continent.

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