Bryan Kauma

Bryan Kauma is a historian of Southern Africa. His research interests focus on Southern Africa's food and environmental history from the pre-colonial past to the present. His work shows how (African) food and indigenous African crops are political, and embedded in the social, economic, political and cultural everyday lives of African society. He is interested in the way food and crops extend the lens of re-examining Africa’s past, unpacking the myriad topical, emotive, and contested themes including race, colonialism, agrarian systems and African peasantry, food security, indigeneity, and agency.

Recent publications:

Kauma & Swart: ‘Hunger and Power: Politics, food insecurity and the development of small grains in Zimbabwe, 2000-2010’, Historia, 67, 1, 2022, p. 144-176. 

KLauma & Swart:  “‘Many of the dishes are no longer eaten by sophisticated urban Africans’. A social history of eating small grains in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) c. 1920s to the 1950s”, Revue d’Histoire Contemporaine de l’Afrique, 2, p. 86-111. 

“‘Small grains, small gains’ African peasant small grain production and marketing in Zimbabwe during the colonial period, 1890-1979’, Southern Africa Historical Journal, 73, 2 2021, p 257-287. 

 “‘Disabled diaries’: Interrogating the print media, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and COVID-19 pandemic nexus in Zimbabwe” in COVID-19 Manifestation, Ramification and Future Prospects in Zimbabwe, Africa and Beyond – An Interdisciplinary Perspective.