Weaponising Hunger: Colonial food denial Thomas Wright
Event details
Thomas Wright of the University of York examines the British administrations’ use of food denial measures in Kenya in the 1950s.
Based on controversial colonial administration records (migrated archives), Thomas reveals the ways that food was appropriated, restricted and denied to make the population increasingly unable to manage their own sustenance. Inevitably, when the answer to disloyalty was enforced hunger, the unfortunate consequence was suffering and hardship.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
About the speaker
Dr Thomas Wright is a historian and researcher who recently completed his PhD on repertoires of coercive controls in the Mau Mau emergency at the University of York. His research focuses on British Imperialism and decolonisation, with a particular interest in Kenya and East Africa. Thomas is the author of a recent article, ‘Constituencies of Control’ – Collective Punishments in Kenya’s Mau Mau Emergency, 1952–55 in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.
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