"How to Write About" Water and Food in Africa?

            After reading the article “How to Write About Africa”, by Binyavanga Wainaina, I started asking myself what my perception about food and water in Africa was, and what was expected from me to think as a white women, according to the mainstream sources of information. When I looked on Google Image, the first pictures that appear were totally matching with Wainaina’s description of the white gaze over Africa: “In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving.”; “Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty”. Even though I know that the management of water and food is not as caricatural, I yet realized that I remain relatively ignorant regarding of the different forms of agriculture, climates, ecosystems etc.

            These subjects are even more important given the fact that agriculture is employing around 70% of the workers and producing about 25% of the gross domestic product in the whole continent (Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. (2014) 95 (6): 861–882). In a context of climate change and increasing urbanization, to what extent a sustainable way of managing water and food can be applied to the different climates, societies and ecosystems in Africa?

Current solution to increase the productivity of African agriculture seems to be mainly brought (or imposed) by white landlords, importing a “conventional” agriculture from the North without adjusting it to the distinctive features of the regions. In this blog, I will try to understand the issues surrounding a sustainable and fair management of water and food in Africa, and to underline solutions taking into account the local knowledge and needs of the concerned populations.