Africa’s Hunger is a Crisis of Injustice — Not a Crisis of Food
Today, on World Food Day 2025, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) stands in unified voice with farmers, communities, Indigenous peoples, civil society, and allies across Africa to declare one urgent truth. The people of Africa are not dying because of a lack of food. They are dying because of lack of justice. Africa’s hunger is the direct result of disempowerment, land dispossession, climate breakdown, and policy decisions that serve markets over people.
At this very hour, millions of Africans, children, women, and men are facing life-threatening hunger, acute malnutrition, and the crushing weight of systemic poverty. In a continent that produces an abundance of food, natural wealth, and agricultural knowledge, this reality is a cruel contradiction. This is not a famine of nature, but the harvest of decades of failed policies, land grabs, extractive models, and the displacement of traditional food systems.
Our Continent in Crisis
- Over 280 million people in Africa are chronically undernourished.
- Children are dying not because food does not exist, but because it is unaffordable, inaccessible, or controlled by corporate interests.
- Smallholder farmers, who feed up to 80% of the continent, are being pushed aside in favor of industrial agriculture, GMO seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and global agribusiness giants.
The African people want food systems that are rooted in agroecology, not chemicals and carbon markets. We want farmers own their seeds, their land, and their decisions — not multinational corporations. We want policies prioritize people, nutrition, biodiversity, and climate resilience — not exports and profits. And we want to see women and youth are no longer excluded but empowered as leaders in food system transformation.
AFSA affirms that Food Sovereignty is the only way forward. Food sovereignty — not food charity, not food dependency — is the key to a better food system and a better future. The 2025 World Food Day theme “Hand in Hand for Better Food and a Better Future” must not become another hollow slogan. We call on African governments, the African Union, development partners, and the international community to act decisively to end the silence, and mobilize resources to save lives now. We the people call on you to:
- Reform national and continental food policies to fully support agroecological transition and community-led food systems.
- Ban land grabs, protect communal lands, and enshrine the rights of Indigenous and rural people to steward their resources.
- Invest in local food economies, traditional knowledge, farmer-led seed systems, and sustainable practices that keep wealth in communities.
- End harmful subsidies and trade deals that flood African markets with cheap, ultra-processed imports and displace nutritious local foods.
A better future is possible — if we build it together. We must no longer tolerate an Africa where food becomes a weapon, farmers become beggars, and aid replaces accountability. Better food is not a luxury — it is a human right. A better future will not be donated — it must be demanded and designed by African people. This is our moment to reclaim Africa’s food systems from profit to people, from chemicals to care, from exploitation to sovereignty.
AFSA chooses life over hunger. AFSA chooses dignity over dependence. AFSA chooses sovereignty over silence.
Tolbert Thomas Jallah, Jr.
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)
Board Chair
October 16, 2025 – World Food Day
