The Everyday Politics of Famine

A comparative ethnographic research project in Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan by a dominantly Sudanese, Somali and South Sudanese team to explore why famine continues and the everyday realities of famine.

Background

This European Research Council funded project (2025 – 2029) is led by Naomi Pendle in response to the reality that famines are becoming more frequent and deadly. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand why famine persists not just because of the human suffering the cause, but because of what it can reveal about contemporary global power and politics. We know that famine can result from wartime acts of starvation and that populations can be left vulnerable to famine by exploitative global political economies. Yet, we do not know much about how these political-economic dynamics manifest in local politics and shaped social and political meanings of everyday foods, routines, and relationships. In turn, we know little about how this everyday politics and social norms such as shame end up maintaining a politics that allows famine to continue.

Research

We explore these themes through comparative ethnography across four sites in South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia. In this comparative ethnography, we focus on three themes – histories of famine, social networks during famine, and death during famine.

The Research Team

Nisar Majid Dr Nisar Majid has worked across the Somali-speaking Horn of Africa since the late 1990s. He was the Research Director at the LSE Conflict Research Programme (CRP) from 2018-21 and now leads the Somalia portfolio on the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), also at the LSE. He also works as an independent consultant and has been involved in numerous studies, reviews and evaluations in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa. He is the co-author of ‘Famine in Somalia, Competing Imperatives, Collective Failure, 2011-12’.

Chirrilio Madut Chirrilo Madut Anei is an independent researcher based in South Sudan, with a master’s degree in Economic Development and Policy Analysis from the University of Juba. He has conducted research in collaboration with academics at the London School of Economics and Political Science since 2017. He has previously worked for many international organizations including a UN agency in South Sudan. His research has included work on war-time trade, public authority, famine and peace meetings. He can be contacted at chirrilomadut321@gmail.com.

Abdirahaman Edle Ali Abdirahman Edle Ali is a researcher specializing in humanitarianism in the Horn of Africa, with a particular focus on how displacement, climate change, mobility, and governance intersect in borderland contexts. His work examines the political economy of aid, public goods, and trade routes, grounded in extensive fieldwork across Somalia and Kenya. He has published widely, including with the Rift Valley Institute and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), on issues such as checkpoints, revenues, and humanitarian access. His academic contributions include articles in Security Dialogue (2022) and the Journal of Refugee Studies (2023). Abdirahman has collaborated with leading international research and policy institutions such as Durham University, Clingendael, Swisspeace, the Life & Peace Institute, and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He is a PhD candidate (awaiting graduation) at the University of Nairobi, where his thesis explores the politics and practices of Somali diaspora humanitarianism.