This research examines the issue of food aid for the people of the Sahel region of Africa. Sahel is a word derived from an Arabic word meaning shore. In the case of the Sahel, the sea is the Sahara Desert, and the shore, the Sahel, is the "belt of semi arid steppe between the Sahara desert and the fertile savanna of the West African Sudan" (Minority Rights Group, 1988, 5). The Sahel, thus, is a strip of land which streches approximately 3,000 miles in an east west direction, but which is only, on the average, about 250 miles deep in a north south direction.
The Sahel crosses parts of eight countries Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Upper Volta, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and the Sudan. The portions of Upper Volta, Nigeria, and the Sudan which are included within the Sahel, however, are relatively minor from the perspectives of both the individual countries, and the Sahel as a whole. Thus, it is those areas between the Sahara and the savanna of the West African Sudan which lie in the former French colonies of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad which primarily constitute the Sahel.
The question addressed in this research concerns whether or not emergency food aid should be provided to the people of the Sahel. Although the mere stating of such a question
1 2appears to be callous in the extreme, there are, nevertheless, valid justifications for its consideration.
In the spring of 1990, the attention of the world is once again drawn to the spectacle of starving thousands in Ethiopia, which lies across the Sudan to the east of the eastern terminus of the Sahel. Although little has been reported about the mat ter, people are starving in the Sahel at this time also.
In late 1985 and early 1986, the attention of the world was drawn to the pathetic spectacle of millions of people starving in Ethiopia. The situation was presented in great detail on television screens around the world on a daily basis. Rock and roll conc...