Explaining the normalisation of black hunger in South Africa: not enough food, or not enough empathy?

Abstract

Millions of Black South Africans are food insecure and malnourished, 30+ years after the democratic transition to Black majority rule in 1994. Yet South Africa is an upper-middle-income country with sufficient food, a constitutional right to food, and comprehensive social protection. High levels of poverty and unemployment are key drivers of hunger, but this paper explores another plausible explanation: “normalisation.” Citizens and the state have become desensitized to Black hunger, after centuries of White domination. Racially hierarchized wealth inequalities and wellbeing outcomes are so entrenched that empathy toward poor and hungry Black people has been undermined. To test these ideas, data collection was conducted in three provinces in 2023-24. A quantitative questionnaire was administered to 600 respondents, stratified by residence, ethnicity, gender, age and education. Qualitative interviews probed individual experiences and attitudes to hunger. This mixed methods research finds confirmatory evidence of normalization, but no evidence of empathy deficits.