Global Journal of Human Social Science, F: Political Science, Volume 22 Issue 5

It is obvious that conflict is the main cause of persistent severe hunger. However, whether famine and hunger are also major drivers of conflict is less evident (Grebmer, 2015). Often famines are portrayed as direct or indirect impact of climate change, for example in the Sahel zone. However, th e Sahel droughts a re not just an effect of climate change, though it was without question a major cause, but also man-made famines, caused by transhumance and overgrazing, deforestation, and poor land management (McLaughlin & Purefoy, 2005; Eden Foundation, Sweden, 1994:1). Thus, environmental havoc induced land scarcity which itself increased segmentation between and within social groups. Thereby, the self-regulating forces of civil society, e.g. African traditional chiefs, and other domestic social, political and economic institutions were frequently weakened both in the formal and informal sectors. Altogether, these dynamics augmented social grievances, ethnicity and the social exclusion of the ‘other’. They generated breakdowns for individuals and social groups, affected by lack of resources, which drove them to engage in violent conflict, as revealed also by case studies of South Africa and Rwanda (Percival, 1995). Thus, drought, as the initial driver of the crisis, triggered a multitude of responses like crop failure, famine, starvation and often subsequent despotic actions of the rulers to counter political unrest. According to the Bible a nd th e Quran, one of the oldest records of the consequences of great famines in ancient Egypt was that in the time of Joseph (7th – 5 th century BCE) when people were enslaved by the Pharaoh’s government. It forced its subjects to plough all available fields to preserve its people alive and furnish food. However, whether this allows for the general conclusion of Pitirim Sorokin (1889 – 1968), a renowned Russian- American conservative sociologist in post-war America, that ‘calamities have on the whole a more favourable than an unfavourable selective effect on human stock’ is highly questionable (Sorokin, 1942). In the most serious cases, it finally resulted in acute socio-economic and political change like the Arab Spring uprisings in the early 2010s. The repercussions of this enforced change impacted also on other aspects of everyday life, like health issues, increased mortality, a transformation of religious beliefs and a political disorder. For example, the African Christian “Ethiopian” Church w hich originated already before the colonial conquest, widened its influence. New churches were founded and they increased their independence from established European Churches, notably in areas where African–White relations were strained (Pribyl, et al, 2019). The early days of colonial rule in Southern Africa were especially prone to gross human rights violations by the Colonialists related to famines. Thereby, Africans frequently associated the blights devastating the land with colonial expansion. The Matabele in Rhodesia, for instance, blamed drought, lo custs and c attle plague on the establishment of the rule of the British South Africa Company. This was not without re ason. The company had requi sitioned, before and during the drought of 1895, Matabele cattle which fuelled the tensions up to Marc h 1896. As strategic means of war, the British occupation troops destroyed local grain stores after the failed harvest of 1896, which aggravated the famine even more. During the same time African peasants in South Africa’s Langeberg region, already famished by the drought, had been forced t o pay hut-tax to the British. The latter’s radical approach to stamp o ut the rampant Rinderpest, which especially threatened the settler fa rmers, led to further rebellions in summer 1896– 97. Ru mours and rebellion spread to other regions, including Zululand, Natal and Basutoland (now Lesotho ). In 1898, the Vend a, wh o settled close to the South African borde r with Z imbabwe were subjugated (Pribyl, et al, 2019). © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue V Version I 8 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 F Will Putin’s Ukraine War Provoke Famine and Upheaval in Africa ?