ABSTRACT:

In South Africa's recent elections in May 2024, the African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority for the first time, amid growing food insecurity, unemployment, and energy crises. Attempts by political actors to consolidate support by provoking anti-immigrant hostility was accompanied with increased tensions in the food sector, particularly affecting foreign-owned businesses. 

In this paper, I move beyond national-level xenophobic discourse to explore the construction and mobilization of ethnicity among food retailers in northern KwaZulu-Natal. In an area frequently associated with strong and politicised ethnic allegiances, I show that ethnicity is not fixed but subtly negotiated as retailers navigate the local food economy shaped by scarcity and myriad social practices of exchange.

BIO:

Dr Elizabeth Hull is a senior lecturer in anthropology at SOAS University of London, and chair of the SOAS Food Studies Centre. She has been conducting ethnographic research in South Africa since 2006. Recent research focuses on food-based livelihoods and how people are navigating recent disruptions to food systems caused by Covid-19, price hikes, floods and political instability. Previously she has worked on nursing, healthcare and ideologies of professionalism. She is author of Contingent Citizens: Professional Aspiration in a South African Hospital (Routledge 2020).