Skip to main content

What is “Famine Food”? Distinguishing Between Traditional Vegetables and Special Foods for Times of Hunger/Scarcity (Boumba, Niger)

Human Ecology volume 36, pages 599–607 (2008)Cite this article

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Notes

  1. This definition was adapted from Kuhnlein and Receveur’s (1996) definition of traditional food systems.

References

  • Adger, W. N., Kelly, P. M., Winkels, A., Huy, L. Q., and Locke, C. (2002). Migration, remittances, livelihood trajectories, and social resilience. Ambio 31(4): 358–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almedom, A. M., Blumenthal, U., and Manderson, L. (1997). Hygiene evaluation procedures: approaches and methods for assessing water and sanitation related hygiene practices. International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries.

  • Barou, I. (2005). Bringing relief to Niger’s hungry? BBC News: World Edition; Sect http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/4675379.stml, Jul 13.

  • BBC Online Africa: Country Profiles: Timeline: Niger [Internet]; c2005 [cited Nov 26, 2005. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/1054274.stm.

  • Berkes, F., Folke, C., and Colding, J. (1998). Linking social and ecological systems: management practices and social mechanisms for building resilienceCambridge University Press, New York, p. 459.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter, S. R., Walker, B. H., Anderies, J. M., and Abel, N. (2001). From metaphor to measurement: resilience of what to what? Ecosystems 4: 765–781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, S., Martins, X., Mitchell, A., Teshome, A., and Arnason, J. T. (2006). Quantitative ethnobotany of two east Timorese cultures. Economic Botany 60(4): 347–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, J. (1988). Famine and household coping strategies. World Development 16(9): 1099–1112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, R. E. (1991). Response to innovation in a Zarma village contemporary tradition in Niger, West Africa. Dissertation, The University of Connecticut.

  • Davison, J. (1988). Agriculture, women, and land: the African experience. Westview, Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Decalo, S. (1979). Historical dictionary of Niger. Scarecrow, Metuchen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Bois, V. D. (1974). The drought in Niger. American Universities Field Staff, Hanover.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falkner, K. L., McCann, S. E., and Trevisan, M. (2001). Participant characteristics and quality of recall of physical activity in the distant past. American Journal of Epidemiology 154(9): 865–872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folke, C., Colding, J., and Berkes, F. (2002). Building resilience for adaptive capacity in social–ecological systems. In Berkes, F., Colding, J., and Folke, C. (eds.), Navigating Social–Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [Internet]; September 2005 Oct 28, 2005]. Available at: http://faostat.fao.org/.

  • Freiberger, C. E., Vanderjagt, D. J., Pastuszyn, A., Glew, R. S., Mounkaila, G., Millson, M., and Glew, R. H. (1998). Nutrient content of the edible leaves of seven wild plants from Niger. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition 53(1): 57–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glew, R. S., and Vanderjagt, D. (2006). Coping strategies and nutritional health in rural Niger: recommendations for consumption of wild plant foods in the Sahel. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 57(5–6): 314–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glew, R. S., Vanderjagt, D. J., Bosse, R., Huang, Y. S., Chuang, L. T., and Glew, R. H. (2005). The nutrient content of three edible plants of the republic of Niger. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 18(1): 15–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gockowski, J., Mbazo’o, J., Mbah, G., and Moulende, T. F. (2003). African traditional leafy vegetables and the urban and peri-urban poor. Food Policy 28(3): 221–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • González-Insuasti, M., and Caballero, J. (2007). Managing plant resources: how intensive can it be? Human Ecology 35(3): 303–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson, L. H. and Holling, C. S. (2002). Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island Press, Washington, DC.

  • Hama, B. (1967). L’histoire traditionnelle d’un peuple, les zarma-songhay. Présence africaine, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, F. M., and Mohammed, S. (2003). Relying on nature: wild foods in northern Nigeria. Ambio 32(1): 24–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrich, M., Ankli, A., Frei, B., Weimann, C., and Sticher, O. (1998). Medicinal plants in Mexico: healers’ consensus and cultural importance. Social Science & Medicine (1982) 47(11): 1859–1871.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphry, C. M., Clegg, M. S., Keen, C. L., and Grivetti, L. E. (1993). Food diversity and drought survival: the Hausa example. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition v44(n1): p1(16).

    Google Scholar 

  • Huss-Ashmore, R., and Johnston, S. L. (1994). Wild plants as cultural adaptations to food stress. In Etkin, N. L. (ed.), Eating on the wild side: the pharmacologic, ecologic, and social implications of using noncultigens. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

    Google Scholar 

  • JansenVanRensburg, W. S., Venter, S. L., Netshiluvhi, T. R., VanDenHeever, E., Vorster, H. J., and DeRonde, J. A. (2004). Role of indigenous leafy vegetables in combating hunger and malnutrition. South African Journal of Botany 70(1): 52–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhnlein, H. V., and Receveur, O. (1996). Dietary change and traditional food systems of indigenous peoples. Annual Review of Nutrition 16: 417–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebrun, J., and Stork, A. (1991–1997). Énumération des plantes à fleurs d’Afrique tropicale. In African Plant Checklist and Database. (Conservatoire et Jardin botanique de la Ville de Genéve, Genéve).

  • Lockett, C. T., Calvert, C. C., and Grivetti, L. E. (2000). Energy and micronutrient composition of dietary and medicinal wild plants consumed during drought. Study of rural Fulani, northeastern Nigeria. International journal of food sciences and nutrition 51(3): 195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lozada, M., Ladio, A., and Weigandt, M. (2006). Cultural transmission of ethnobotanical knowledge in a rural community of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Economic Botany 60(4): 374–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacCord, P., and Begossi, A. (2006). Dietary changes over time in a Caiçara community from the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Ecology and Society 11(2): 38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mounkaila, F. (1988). Le mythe et l’histoire dans la geste de Zabarkâne. Celhto, Niamey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller-Schwarze, N. K. (2006). Antes and hoy día: plant knowledge and categorization as adaptations to life in panama in the twenty-first century. Economic Botany 60(4): 321–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okole, B. N., and Odhav, B. (2004). Commercialization of plants in Africa. South African Journal of Botany 70(1): 109–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olivier de Sardan, J. (1982). Concepts et conceptions songhay-zarma: Histoire, culture, société. Nubia, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oumarou Yaro, B. (1993). Eléments de description du Zarma (Niger). PhD thesis, University of Grenoble.

  • Painter, T. M. (1988). From warriors to migrants: critical perspectives on early migrations among the Zarma of Niger. Africa. London 58(1): 87–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romney, A. K., Weller, S. C., and Batchelder, W. H. (1986). Culture as consensus: a theory of culture and informant accuracy. American Anthropologist 88(2): 313–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, G., Allen, C. R., and Holling, C. S. (1998). Ecological resilience, biodiversity and scale. Ecosystems 1: 6–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, P. J., Etkin, N. L., and Muazzamu, I. (1996). A changing Hausa diet. Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness 17(2): 143–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer, M., Brock, W. A., and Westley, F. (2000). Mechanisms preventing optimum use of ecosystem services: an interdisciplinary theoretical analysis. Ecosystems 3: 451–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sena, L. P., Vanderjagt, D. J., Rivera, C., Tsin, A. T., Muhamadu, I., Mahamadou, O., Millson, M., Pastuszyn, A., and Glew, R. H. (1998). Analysis of nutritional components of eight famine foods of the republic of Niger. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition (Dordrecht, Netherlands) 52(1): 17–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, G. C., Clegg, M. S., Keen, C. L., and Grivetti, L. E. (1996). Mineral values of selected plant foods common to southern Burkina Faso and to Niamey, Niger, west Africa. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition v47(n1): p41(13).

    Google Scholar 

  • Trotter, R. T. I., and Logan, M. H. (1986). Informant consensus: a new approach for identifying potentially effective medicinal plants. In Etkin, N. L. (ed.), Plants in indigenous medicine & diet: Biobehavioral approaches. Gordon and Breach, New York, pp. 91–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Development Programme (1990). Human development report. New York, UNDP.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research would not have been possible with out the generous support of the Boumba community, including specifically Lt. Abdoullaye Soumana, Lt. Ide Matchido and Hassan Kobia. We thank Mlle. Haouaou Noma, Prof. Pearl Robinson, Prof. Mahamane Saadou, Alpha Yacouba, Dommo Djabou and Mamou Mounkaila for their assistance in research logistics and the first author’s PhD advisory committee for their continued support and guidance. The fieldwork was funded by the Anne S. Chatham Fellowship (Garden Club of America), Tufts Institute of the Environment, the Switzer Foundation, Graduate Women in Science and Tufts Graduate School. The first author is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Henry R. Luce Program funding support for conference travel which facilitated discussion of earlier drafts of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Jocelyn Muller

  2. Institute for Global Leadership; The Fletcher School, Tufts University, 112 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Astier M. Almedom

Authors
  1. Jocelyn Muller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Astier M. Almedom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jocelyn Muller.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Muller, J., Almedom, A.M. What is “Famine Food”? Distinguishing Between Traditional Vegetables and Special Foods for Times of Hunger/Scarcity (Boumba, Niger). Hum Ecol 36, 599–607 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-008-9179-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-008-9179-0

Keywords

  • Food Insecurity
  • Food Shortage
  • Ecological Resilience
  • Cultural Domain
  • Staple Diet