The ‘Slow violence’ of famines

How do we account for the injured, suffering, disappearing, lifeless, decaying, mourning, and exterminated bodies of mass starvation? Is political violence only about blood and war, visible injuries and quick deaths on a temporal scale? What about the displacement, disappearances and gradual deaths that occur in geographies of mass starvation, or famines produced through wars and other kinds of deliberate actions by the powerful? This paper engages with the dilemmas of studying famines as deliberate mass starvation or as acts of political violence perpetrated by actors who need to be held accountable. It draws from the concept of ‘slow violence’ (Nixon 2011) to argue that the gradual emaciation, death and decay of starving bodies and the invisibility of famine-related inter-generational suffering prevent sustained public attention to this serious crime against humanity and violation of human rights.