A Decolonial Feminist Intervention on Tax, Maize, and the Right to Eat on Our Own Terms

Africa's food systems are shaped not only by climate, soil, and labour but by the fiscal architecture through which states raise revenue, distribute incentives, and negotiate with global capital. This policy brief follows the journey of maize, the continent's most politically and culturally significant staple, from mbegu (seed) to sahani (plate) to expose how corporate tax incentives, regressive consumption taxes, and the fiscal privileges afforded to multinational seed and agrochemical corporations systematically undermine food sovereignty, particularly for women wakulima (farmers) who produce the majority of the continent's food yet remain excluded from the fiscal bargain. Drawing on feminist political economy and decolonial fiscal analysis, the brief argues that tax justice is a food sovereignty issue, that the ongoing entry of genetically modified maize into African food systems through fiscal doorways demands urgent scrutiny, and that progressive alternatives, from rationalising agribusiness tax incentives to financing agroecological transition and making women's unpaid kazi (labour) visible in fiscal accounts are both necessary and achievable within the framework of SDGs 2, 16, and 17.