Chapter Four: Re-imagining Violence Against Africa’s Youth Within the Framework of the 2008 Hunger Riots

Precipitated by a global inflation of commodity prices, a global food crisis unfolded at an alarming speed in African countries in 2008, leading to widespread hunger riots. According to the May 2017 United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Food Price Index, in the year preceding the hunger riots, the price of wheat has risen by 130%, soya by 87% and rice by 74% (FAO, 2017). Schneider (2008) shows that, throughout the continent, youth demonstrators combined demands for lower food prices with calls for greater democracy, good governance and transformative political reforms. These events affected the majority of Africa’s poor, causing protests and presenting policymakers with the challenge of simultaneously addressing hunger, poverty, economic planning and political stability.