Maize and the politics of provisioning in South Africa
Audience: Public Format: Hybrid
Join us for the final seminar of the term with Dr Elizabeth Hull from SOAS, University of London
Thursday, 4 June 2026, 4pm to 5pm
In rural South Africa, rising maize prices have contributed to growing hunger and political tensions. In Jozini, where maize is a staple food, the phrase isisu asikweletwa ('the stomach cannot be owed') captures the embodied experience of crisis and the limits of debt-mediated survival in a financialised food system. Drawing on long-term ethnographic work and recent interviews in the wake of price hikes, the paper explores how maize has become a focus of contestation over access to food. It argues that conceptualising food provisioning as a political field shaped by conflicts, obligations and claims, helps rethink the boundaries between every day politics and form politics in a context of weakening democracy.
Speaker(s): Dr Elizabeth Hull (SOAS, University of London)
Series: Future of Food seminars
Venue:
Oxford Martin School - Seminar room 1 (ground floor)
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Seminar room 1 (ground floor) Oxford Martin School 35 Broad Street Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3BD United Kingdom
Department: Oxford Martin School (Unit)
Organiser: Lexi Earl
Host: Lexi Earl
Register here: https://www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/event/maize-and-the-politics-of-provisioning-in-south-africa
More info:
For those joining in person, there is an informal drinks reception after the talk.