Food has always been in the background in all the periods of crisis, functioning as a silent indicator of the societal conditions and needs. Food becomes a real threat to public wellbeing, especially when the notion of justice clashes with basic subsistence. Crises and Conflicts often invariably impact the food culture and food value in societies. Analysis of food, its production, cooking and consumption patterns have revealed its undeniable ties with poverty, and gender and sexuality. This relation is, however, disrupted during crises and conflict periods, recently seen in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, wherein food choices and consumption changed for a sustained period of time.
This paper seeks to study the records of cultural practices of food and eating patterns in two war narratives – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) and Romesh Gunesekara’s Reef (1994) based on two real life conflicts i.e., the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War (1967-70) and the Sri Lankan Civil War (1993-2009). The study would be in terms of the politics around food production and supply, and as a metaphor for the expression of sexuality, ammunition, pride, and livelihood for its protagonists – Ugwu and Triton respectively – who, as houseboys in upper-class households, grow and learn to navigate the crises period through their knowledge of food. The term “Zeitroman” refers to the coming of age of these young protagonist during periods of crises. Both the authors, Adichie and Gunesekara, use food as an underlying motif to capture societies in transition, as their values and hierarchies are upended as they become increasingly mired in war. This paper would attempt an anthropological reading of these two literary texts along with other narratives and historical references to analyse how food and war are integral to each other.
