Memory and justice after famines: an introduction

Famines in the Global South have claimed staggering numbers of lives, but are rarely the focus of scholarship on, or practices of, memorialisation and justice. The articles in this collection investigate how past famines have been dealt with – or silenced – in Cabo Verde, China, Brazil, East Timor/Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Nigeria and Rwanda. This introductory essay first discusses why famines and hunger should be conceptualised as violence and mass atrocities, caused by human action. Thereafter, we outline some of the main insights that have emerged from the collection of articles. We show how and why mass starvation is often written out of official accounts of history, famine victims are rarely publicly commemorated and those responsible are not brought to justice. Yet the contributions also highlight that efforts to represent and commemorate famines, and to seek justice, take place in many – sometimes unexpected – spaces. The silence around historical famines may be broken in official justice processes or statements by powerholders, or through initiatives and practices ‘from below’, including in social media, songs and artistic work.