Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Review Article
  • Published:

Deep histories of food systems in eastern Africa and current patterns of food insecurity

Nature Food volume 4, pages 949–960 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Central to successful attempts to address food insecurity in Africa are understandings of the historical contexts and meanings of food systems. However, much research into current challenges remains separated from deeper agrarian and alimentary histories. Using qualitative data on food within the historical record alongside the wider multidisciplinary record of the past, this Review traces long-term patterns and drivers of continuity and change in eastern African food systems. Considerable dynamism in place-based and regional trends in the integration of new foodstuffs, agricultural commercialization, resistance and transformations in diets, and diversification and specialization as livelihood strategies is found—each of which emerged within imbricated contexts of African agency, transoceanic exchanges and colonial incursions. Such historical data provide important deep-time perspectives for interventions to address modern food insecurity, as demonstrated through examples of agricultural value chains, ‘under-utilized’ crops and major infrastructure projects in southeast Africa.

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

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Catalogued historical observations of foodstuffs in the study region alongside radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites.
Fig. 2: Recorded frequency of crops and animals in historical written evidence from eastern Africa for 1497–1840.
Fig. 3: Distribution of key grain and root crops in historical written evidence from eastern Africa for 1497–1840.
Fig. 4: Chronological recording of six key crops in four areas of Mozambique in historical written evidence for 1497–1840.
Fig. 5: Distribution of cattle and caprines in historical written evidence from eastern Africa for 1497–1840 and predicted areas of suitability for tsetse fly.
Fig. 6: Mozambican livelihood zones.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The database of foodstuffs and food systems generated and analysed as part of this Review is freely available via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21793256 (ref. 16), along with metadata and supporting references.

References

  1. McCann, J. C. Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine (Ohio Univ. Press, 2009).

  2. Douglass, K. et al. Historical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa. Conserv. Biol. 33, 260–274 (2019).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Logan, A. L. The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana (Univ. California Press, 2022).

  4. Reid, R. Past And presentism: the ‘precolonial’ and the foreshortening of African history. J. Afr. Hist. 52, 135–155 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Vansina, J. Finding food and the history of precolonial equatorial Africa: a plea. Afr. Econ. Hist. 7, 9–20 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Beinart, W. & Middleton, K. Plant transfers in historical perspective: a review article. Environ. Hist. 10, 3–29 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Mandala, E. The End of Chidyerano. A History of Food and Everyday Life in Malawi, 1860–2004 (Heinemann, 2005).

  8. Logan, A. L. et al. Usable pasts forum: critically engaging food security. Afr. Archaeol. Rev. 36, 419–438 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Douglass, K. The diversity of late Holocene shellfish exploitation in Velondriake, southwest Madagascar. J. Island Coast. Archaeol. 12, 333–359 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Odada, E. O. et al. An East African perspective of the Anthropocene. Sci. Afr. 10, e00553 (2020).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Gengenbach, H. ‘Provisions’ and power on an imperial frontier: a gendered history of hunger in 16th century Central Mozambique. Int. J. Afr. Hist. Stud. 50, 409–437 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gengenbach, H. et al. Serving ‘the uses of life’: gender, history, and food security in a cassava value chain scheme. Afr. Stud. Rev. 65, 93–117 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Biagetti, S. et al. No Rain, no grain? Ethnoarchaeology of sorghum and millet cultivation in dryland environments of Sudan, Pakistan, and Ethiopia. Ethnoarchaeology 13, 80–104 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Rock, J. S. We Are Not Starving: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Ghana (Michigan State Univ. Press, 2022).

  15. Davidson, E. et al. Big data, qualitative style: a breadth-and-depth method for working with large amounts of secondary qualitative data. Qual. Quant. 53, 363–376 (2019).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Hannaford, M. J. Database of foodstuffs and food systems in Africa, 1497–1840. Figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21793256 (2022).

  17. Marchant, R. et al. Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present. Earth Sci. Rev. 178, 322–378 (2018).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Morrison, K. D. et al. Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: a new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization. PLoS ONE 16, e0246662 (2021).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Lane, P. & Shoemaker, A. (eds) in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History 1–46 (Oxford, Univ. Press, 2017).

  20. Young, R. & Thompson, G. in The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa (ed. van der Veen, M.) 63–72 (Springer, 1999).

  21. Manning, K. et al. 4500-year old domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) from the Tilemsi Valley, Mali: new insights into an alternative cereal domestication pathway. J. Archaeol. Sci. 38, 312–322 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gallagher, D. American plants in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of the archaeological evidence. Azania 51, 24–61 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Boivin, N. et al. East Africa and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean World. J. World Prehistory 26, 213–281 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Fuller, D. Q. & Boivin, N. Crops, cattle and commensals across the Indian Ocean. Current and potential archaeobiological evidence. Etud. Ocean Ind. 42–43, 13–46 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Crowther, A. et al. Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 6635–6640 (2016).

    ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Kay, A. U. et al. Diversification, intensification and specialization: changing land use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500. J. World Prehist. 32, 179–228 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Jones, A. The dark continent: a preminary study of the geographical coverage in European sources, 1400-1880. Paideuma 33, 19–26 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Hannaford, M. J. Pre-colonial south-east Africa: sources and prospects for research in economic and social history. J. South. Afr. Stud. 44, 771–792 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hair, P. E. H. Milho, meixoeira and other foodstuffs of the sofala garrison, 1505–1525. Cah. Étud. Afr. 17, 353–363 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Portères, R. L’introduction du maïs en Afrique. J. Agric. Tradit. Bot. Appl. 2, 221–231 (1955).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Miracle, M. P. The introduction and spread of maize in Africa. J. Afr. Hist. 6, 39–55 (1965).

    Google Scholar 

  32. McCann, J. C. Maize and Grace: Africa’s Encounter with a New World Crop, 1500–2000 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2005).

  33. da Mota, A. T. & Carreira, A. Milho zaburro and milho maçaroca in Guinea and in the islands of Cabo Verde. Africa 36, 73–84 (1966).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Vansina, J. Histoire du manioc en Afrique centrale avant 1850. Paideuma 43, 255–279 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  35. von Oppen, A. Cassava, ‘the lazy man’s food’? Indigenous agricultural innovation and dietary change in Northwestern Zambia (ca. 1650–1970). Food Foodways 5, 15–38 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Peša, I. in Transforming Innovations in Africa: Explorative Studies on Appropriation in African Societies (eds Gewald, J. B. & Leliveld, A.) 169–190 (Brill, 2012).

  37. Alpern, S. B. The European introduction of crops into West Africa in precolonial times. Hist. Afr. 19, 13–43 (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Alpern, S. B. Exotic plants of western Africa: where they came from and when. Hist. Afr. 35, 63–102 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Loftus, E. et al. An archaeological radiocarbon database for southern Africa. Antiquity 93, 870–885 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Fuller, D. & Stevens, C. J. in: Plants and People in the African Past: Progress in African Archaeobotany (eds Mercuri, A. M. et al.) 427–452 (Springer, 2018).

  41. Walshaw, S. C. Converting to rice: urbanization, Islamization and crops on Pemba Island, Tanzania, AD 700–1500. World Archaeology 42, 137–154 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Quintana Morales, E. M. et al. Diet, economy, and culinary practices at the height of precolonial Swahili urbanism. J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 66, 101406 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Thibon, C. Croissance démographique, paysage politique et diversification culturale dans la région des Grands Lacs. La variable démographique, indicateur et témoin de la diffusion des plantes Américaines, entre histoires centrale et périphériques. East Afr. Rev. 52, 151–240 (2019).

  44. Soper, R. Nyanga: Ancient Fields, Settlements and Agricultural History in Zimbabwe (British Institute in Eastern Africa, 2002).

  45. Widgren, M. et al. Precolonial agricultural terracing in Bokoni, South Africa: typology and an exploratory excavation. J. Afr. Archaeol. 14, 33–53 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Stump, D. The development and expansion of the field and irrigation systems at Engaruka, Tanzania. Azania 41, 69–94 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Thornton-Barnett, S. Persevering with Great Abandon: An Archaeobotanical Investigation of Resilience and Sustainability in Eastern African Irrigated Terrace Agriculture. PhD thesis, Univ. York (2018).

  48. Anonymous in The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890 (eds Beach, D. N. & Noronha H.) 159–180 (History Department, Univ. Zimbabwe, 1980).

  49. da Conceição, A. in The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890 (eds Beach, D. N. & Noronha H.) 196–229 (History Department, Univ. Zimbabwe, 1980).

  50. de Miranda, A. P. in The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890 (eds Beach, D. N. & Noronha H.) 83–115 (History Department, Univ. Zimbabwe, 1980).

  51. Anonymous in The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890 (eds Beach, D. N. & Noronha H.) 116–128 (History Department, Univ. Zimbabwe, 1980).

  52. Beach, D. N. in The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (eds Palmer, R. & Parsons, N.) 37–65 (Heinemann, 1977).

  53. Boivin, N., Crowther, A., Prendergast, M. & Fuller, D. Q. Indian Ocean food globalisation and Africa. Afr. Archaeol. Rev. 31, 547–581 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Varella, J. J. in Relaçōes de Moçambique Setecentista (ed. de Andrade, A. A.) 375–407 (Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1955).

  55. Morice, J. V. in The French at Kilwa Island: An Episode in Eighteenth-Century East African History (ed. Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P.) 168–175 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1965).

  56. White, W. Journal of a Voyage Performed in the Lion Extra Indiaman from Madras to Columbo and Da Lagoa Bay, on the Eastern Coast of Africa, in the Year 1798 (John Stockdale, 1800).

  57. Salt, H. A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country (F.C. and J. Rivington, 1814).

  58. Almeida, F. J. L. Documentos para a Historia das Colonias Portuguezas; Diario da Viagem de Moçambique para os Rios de Senna (Imprensa Nacional, 1889).

  59. Ekblom, A. L. et al. A historical ecology of Limpopo Natural Park and the lower Limpopo valley. J. Archaeol. Anc. Hist. 1, 1–29 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  60. Lamb, H. et al. Vegetation response to rainfall variation and human impact in central Kenya during the past 1100 years. Holocene 13, 285–292 (2003).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  61. Finch, J. et al. Ecosystem change in the South Pare Mountain bloc, Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Holocene 27, 796–810 (2017).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  62. Kiage, L. M. & Liu, K. B. Palynological evidence of climate change and land degradation in the Lake Baringo area, Kenya, East Africa, since AD 1650. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 279, 60–72 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  63. Boteler, T. Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia: Performed in His Majesty’s Ships, Leven and Baracouta from 1821 to 1826, Under the Command of Capt. F.W. Owen (Richard Bentley, 1835).

  64. Hannaford, M. J. & Nash, D. J. Climate, history, society over the last millennium in southeast Africa. WIREs Clim. Change 3, 370–392 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  65. Maggs, T. Mgoduyanuka: terminal Iron Age settlement in the Natal grasslands. Ann. Natal Mus. 25, 83–113 (1982).

    Google Scholar 

  66. Huffman, T. N. The archaeology of the Nguni past. South. Afr. Human. 16, 79–111 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  67. Ballard, C. Drought and economic distress: South Africa in the 1800s. J. Interdisc. Hist. 17, 359–378 (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  68. Hannaford, M. J. & Beck, K. K. Rainfall variability in southeast and west-central Africa during the Little Ice Age: do documentary and proxy records agree? Climatic Change 168, 11 (2021).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  69. La Fleur, J. D. Fusion Foodways of Africa’s Gold Coast in the Atlantic Era (Brill, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  70. Logan, A. L. ‘Why can’t people feed themselves?’: archaeology as alternative archive of food security in Banda, Ghana. Am. Anthropol. 118, 508–524 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  71. Gijanto, L. & Walshaw, S. Ceramic production and dietary changes at Juffure, Gambia. Afr. Archaeol. Rev. 31, 265–297 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  72. Hannaford, M. J. Long-term drivers of vulnerability and resilience to drought in the Zambezi-Save area of southern Africa, 1505–1830. Glob. Planet. Change 166, 94–106 (2018).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  73. Håkansson, T. N. The human ecology of world systems in East Africa: the impact of the ivory trade. Hum. Ecol. 32, 561–591 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  74. Anderson, D. M. Agriculture and irrigation technology at Lake Baringo in the nineteenth century. Azania 24, 84–97 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  75. Håkansson, T. N. Irrigation, population pressure, and exchange in precolonial Pare, Tanzania. Res. Econ. Anthropol. 16, 297–324 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  76. dos Santos, J. in Records of South-Eastern Africa Vol. VII (ed. Theal, G. M.) 1–371 (C. Struik, 1898–1903).

  77. Liesegang, G. ‘Reposta das Questoens sobre os Cafres,’ ou Notícias Etnográficas sobre Sofala do Fim do Século XVIII (Junta de Investigações do Ultramar-Centro de Estudos de Antropologia Cultural, 1966).

  78. Biginagwa, T. J. & Lane, P. J. Local animal economies during the nineteenth-century caravan trade along the Lower Pangani, northeastern Tanzania: a zooarchaeological perspective. Azania 56, 219–249 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  79. Newitt, M. D. D. A History of Mozambique (Indiana Univ. Press, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Gomes, A. in The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890 (eds Beach, D. N. & Noronha, H.) 35–134 (History Department, Univ. Zimbabwe, 1980).

  81. Barreto, M. in Records of South-Eastern Africa Vol. III (ed. Theal, G. M.) 436–495 (C. Struik, 1898–1903).

  82. Rea, W. F. The Economics of the Zambezi Missions: 1580-1759 (Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1976).

  83. Truão, A. N. B. V. B. Estatistica dos Rios de Senna do Anno de 1806, 16 Julho 1807 (Imprensa Nacional, 1889).

  84. de Monclaro, F. in Records of South-Eastern Africa Vol. VIII (ed. Theal, G. M.) 324–429 (C. Struik, 1898–1903).

  85. Woldekiros, H. S. & D’Andrea, A. C. Early evidence for domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) in the Horn of Africa. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 27, 329–341 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  86. Dueppen, S. A. Early evidence for chickens at Iron Age Kirikongo (c. AD 100–1450), Burkina Faso. Antiquity 85, 142–157 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  87. Prendergast, M. E. et al. Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets. PloS ONE 12, e0182565 (2017).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  88. Le Gall, M. et al. A global review on locusts (Orthoptera: Acrididae) and their interactions with livestock grazing practices. Front. Ecol. Evol. 7, 263 (2019).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  89. Axelson, E. Portuguese in South-East Africa 1600-1700 (Witwatersrand Univ. Press, 1960).

  90. Van Onselen, C. Reactions to rinderpest in southern Africa 1896–97. J. Afr. Hist. 13, 473–488 (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  91. Pribyl, K. et al. The role of drought in agrarian crisis and social change: the famine of the 1890s in south-eastern Africa. Reg. Environ. Change 19, 2683–2695 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  92. Giblin, J. Trypanosomiasis control in African history: an evaded issue? J. Afr. Hist. 31, 59–80 (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  93. Manyanga, M. & Pangeti, G. in Archives, Objects, Places and Landscapes: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Decolonised Zimbabwean Pasts (eds Manyanga, M. & Chirikure, S.) 277–294 (Langaa RPCIG, 2017).

  94. Thorp, C. A. Kings, Commoners, and Cattle at Zimbabwe Tradition Sites (National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, 1995).

  95. Chirikure, S. New perspectives on the political economy of Great Zimbabwe. J. Archaeol. Res. 28, 139–186 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  96. Quintana Morales, E. M. Shifting fish consumption and climate change on the Swahili coast (AD 800–1500). Archaeofauna 22, 113–122 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  97. Ceppi, S. L. & Nielsen, M. R. A comparative study on bushmeat consumption patterns in ten tribes in Tanzania. Trop. Conserv. Sci. 7, 272–287 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  98. Ferrão, F. H. in Records of South-Eastern Africa Vol. VII (ed. Theal, G. M.) 372–383 (C. Struik, 1898–1903).

  99. Ekblom, A. Livelihood security, vulnerability and resilience: a historical analysis of Chibuene, Southern Mozambique. Ambio 41, 479–489 (2012).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  100. Beach, D. N. Zimbabwe Before 1900 (Mambo, 1984).

  101. Picolo, M. et al. Rethinking integrated nutrition-health strategies to address micronutrient deficiencies in children under five in Mozambique. Matern. Child Nutr. 15, e12721 (2019).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  102. Artur, L. in Why Vulnerability Still Matters (eds Bankoff, G. & Hillhorst, D.) 143–167 (Routledge, 2022).

  103. Reddy, S. J. Agroclimate of Mozambique as Relevant to Dry-Land Agriculture Report No. 47 (Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agronómica, 1986).

  104. Acidri, J., Ngirazi, D., Bata, O. & Mavie, A. Mozambique Livelihood Zone Descriptions (FEWSNET, 2014).

  105. Raikes, P. Food policy and production in Mozambique since independence. Rev. Afr. Polit. Econ. 11, 95–107 (1984).

    Google Scholar 

  106. de Brito, L., Chaimite, E. & Shankland, A. in Food Riots, Food Rights and the Politics of Provisions (eds Hossain, N. & Scott-Villiers, P.) 158–1176 (Routledge, 2017).

  107. Cairns, J. E. et al. Adapting maize production to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. Food Sec. 5, 345–360 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  108. Orr, A. et al. Why invest in research & development for sorghum and millets? The business case for East and Southern Africa. Glob. Food Secur. 26, 100458 (2020).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  109. Mayes, S. et al. Bambara groundnut: an exemplar underutilised legume for resilience under climate change. Planta 250, 803–820 (2019).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  110. Tan, X. L. et al. Bambara groundnut: an underutilized leguminous crop for global food security and nutrition. Front. Nutr. 7, 601496 (2020).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  111. Gengenbach, H. From cradle to chain? Gendered struggles for cassava commercialisation in Mozambique. Can. J. Dev. Stud. 41, 224–242 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  112. Botelho, S. X. Memória Estatística sobre os Domínios Portuguezes na África Oriental (J. B. Morando,1835–1837).

  113. Forsythe, L., Nyamanda, M., Mbachi Mwangwela, A. & Bennett, B. Beliefs, taboos and minor crop value chains. Food Cult. Soc. 18, 501–517 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  114. Isaacman, A. Cahora Bassa Dam & the delusion of development. Daedalus 150, 103–123 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  115. Scodanibbio, L. & Mañez, G. The World Commission on Dams: a fundamental step towards integrated water resources management and poverty reduction? A pilot case in the Lower Zambezi, Mozambique. Phys. Chem. Earth 30, 976–983 (2005).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  116. Newitt, M. D. D. Drought in Mozambique 1823–1831. J. South. Afr. Stud. 15, 15–35 (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  117. Lane, P. J. New directions for historical archaeology in Eastern Africa? J. Afr. Hist. 57, 173–181 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  118. Bird, D. et al. p3k14c, a synthetic global database of archaeological radiocarbon dates. Sci. Data 9, 27 (2022).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  119. Wint, W. & Rogers, D. Consultants Report: Predicted Distributions of Tsetse in Africa (FAO, 2000).

  120. Mozambique Livelihood Zone Map (FEWSNET, 2014); https://fews.net/southern-africa/mozambique/livelihood-zone-map/may-2014

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK

    Matthew J. Hannaford

Authors
  1. Matthew J. Hannaford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew J. Hannaford.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Food thanks Paul Lane and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hannaford, M.J. Deep histories of food systems in eastern Africa and current patterns of food insecurity. Nat Food 4, 949–960 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00879-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00879-7

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing