Serving "the Uses of Life": Gender, History, and Food Security in a Cassava Value Chain Scheme

Gengenbach, Come, and Nhabinde historicize women's responses to an agricultural "value chain" in Zavala, Mozambique. Inspired by the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A), the initiative aims to reduce hunger by converting cassava to industrial use for SABMiller's Impala beer. Women chafed at the proposed remaking of an agrarian foodway long anchored by this edible commodity. Cassava's inseparable dietary and market value in precolonial times intensified under Portuguese rule even as colonizers disdained it as a feminine "subsistence" crop and then claimed its commercial potential. Weaponizing this gendered binary yet needing women's support, the Impala scheme has struggled to achieve GR4A food security goals.