- Suicide bombings in Nigeria. A full stomach and purpose bring reason.
- We strive to achieve for status, exploration, belonging, and achievement, but ultimately it is hunger that determines our abilities, desires, and starting point.
- People are ultimately good. We all wish to give a helping hand, even the worst of us, but dignity comes first. Our ability to feed ourselves and our loved ones gives us dignity and a sense of self-worth, but without that, there is delusion and destruction.
I came upon this notion that people who have food to eat are more reasonable, to a large extent. Maybe not 100%, but I do not know what else in this world is really 100% for sure. You know the saying: a hungry man is an angry man.
In 2018, I think, or 2017, after the years when ISIS seemed to own every screen and every headline—remember when we used to see those Toyota Hilux pickups driving around in the desert? So many of them, like a whole fleet of them. I always thought that was interesting. We will get back to that later.
This story right at my doorstep
When there was the rise of Boko Haram, and when there was that terrible story of the Chibok girls, I knew all I wanted to do was go to the north of Nigeria and help find those girls. Somehow, it affected me psychologically so badly, and I really wanted to do something about it. I simply could not sit across a few borders and feel human by not trying to do more than just watch the news and listen to whether they found one or not.
It is incredible how I feel it was a terrible experience for me. How much more for those girls, or their families, or the people that lived nearby, wondering whether they would be next. I often think that there are unimaginable stories going on in the world, and we do not know about them. The few that make the news, we do not do enough about. Here, there was this story right at my doorstep, and somehow it touched me deeply.
From then onwards, I made food security a subject of security itself. I tried to understand the psychology of these men, not just the kidnappings but the suicide bombings. I really wanted to understand what drives a person to willingly justify blood on their hands, but in speakable ways.
Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I was coming to this light, and this light was that they were hungry. You can only be driven to do such a thing if you wake up in the morning and you do not know when your next meal is going to come. You may or may not have a family, but you have to watch the people that you care for not eat, especially as a man, not being able to provide for your wife, for your children, or your sister or your mother.
The inability to provide and create becomes your drive for destruction
I think that does something to you. I think that does something to your psychology. I think that does something to your self-worth. I think that does something to your hands, which are meant to create. I think that does something to the blood that runs through your veins. Where suddenly, the inability to provide and create becomes your drive for destruction.
Somebody or some structure waiting to translate hunger into action
But I do not think hunger walks into a room and becomes violence by itself. There is always somebody or some structure waiting to translate hunger into action. They offer food. They offer money. They offer protection. They offer a brotherhood. They offer a uniform. They offer somebody a role when ordinary life has offered him none.
But watch what happens when people lose their dignity by not being able to feed themselves. For a man, not being able to provide for his family and close cohorts is something that can do a lot to him, because in many communities men are raised to understand their worth through their ability to provide, contribute, and protect. To contribute to society, to beat his chest and say, “Yes, I did that. Yes, I can do that. I have a sense of purpose.”
Now watch what happens when he finds a sense of belonging by becoming a part of something that may be greater than him, whether or not he believes in this. That sense of belonging is then given a sense of purpose to believe in something and to do something. Watch what happens when he is able to put food in his hungry stomach as a reward.
And I speak about men because the provider burden placed on men is often direct and visible. But hunger humiliates women too. It burdens mothers who cannot feed their children, girls whose schooling ends, and households forced into choices that no family should have to make.
What makes us think that any of us would be different
How can we challenge this notion? How can we not understand this? What makes us think that any of us would be different, given similar circumstances? I think it is easy to judge or have an opinion about something, even when you cannot fathom it.
Naturally, this is not to bring any form of justification to the actions or choices, but maybe to bring less suffering to ourselves, me in particular, because we have been able to break down these actions into thinking. We have been able to bring it down to understanding and see what we see in these instances, maybe in ourselves.
To understand a condition is not to forgive an act. No hunger gives a person the right to take another person’s life. But if we refuse to understand the conditions that make violence recruitable, we will keep arriving after the damage is done, calling it evil, and building nothing that competes with it.
Back to “a hungry man is an angry man.”
I think I heard some stuff about people from more developed Western countries getting onto a flight and going to the Middle East and joining ISIS. I thought it was interesting, to say the least, from a psychological point of view. Of course, I thought, why would you do that? You have more exposure. You have a higher viewing point. And I do not mean this from a moral standard. I just mean perhaps having more understanding, as usually in the West our basic needs have been met, so we are slightly higher up on the ladder, if you understand what I mean.
In any case, I wondered about these suicide bombings that take place all over the world, maybe even envisioning 9/11, and wondering again: what would drive a person to do something like this? You must not have a lot going on for you to do that, right?
But these are not the same things. Boko Haram, ISIS, 9/11, people travelling from the West to join ISIS. These are not the same movements, and they do not happen for the same reasons. I am not trying to say that food is the only reason. I keep coming back to one shared question: what happens when belonging, income, status, purpose, and maybe even protection are given more easily by something destructive than by ordinary life?
The subject came back to food. I kept wondering whether hunger was present in some form. Not always hunger for food, perhaps, but hunger for recognition, belonging, safety, status, or a role. You may have also felt some pride or dignity in now being able to not only have your name written in history, presumptively, but also now be able to feed your family.
I am only assuming this because I understand that usually people are promised many things for destroying themselves and others along with them. This is not to say everything is hunger, but just like physical stunted growth, caused but not only caused by malnutrition, the same happens in our brains.
Just like physical stunted growth, the same happens in our brains
The lack of food and the lack of nutritious food can affect our development, our energy, our concentration, our mood, our stress, and our ability to think beyond immediate survival. It is easier to have negative thoughts when you do not have sufficient nutrition.
I know psychology is broader than that, but it is a subject within psychology worth considering in depth:
- How food and nutrition shape development and gene expression, and the expression of generational disadvantage.
- How food and nutrition affect our physiology, our performance, and our ability to concentrate.
- What happens to us as we age, including things like inflammation.
I think it would only be natural to understand that food and nutrition also have a profound impact, or a strong enough correlation, to determine many of the feelings that we have and therefore also the choices that we make.
Destruction is also an economy
Back to the Toyota Hiluxes. I used to see those fleets driving around in the desert and think: where did all of that come from? The fuel. The vehicles. The weapons. The food. The money. The roads. The people moving supplies. It made me understand that destruction is also an economy. It has logistics. It has procurement. It has incentives. Hunger may make a person vulnerable, but hunger alone does not build a convoy. Somebody builds the system around it.
What if the world focused more on dignity through food? If I cannot get what I need from this place, I will go elsewhere. It means if I cannot get my dignity from this place, perhaps I should consider getting my dignity from elsewhere.
Just like children who are trying to get attention from their parents, if they do not get it, they will find other methods, which may usually be negative ones.
Maybe dignity through food is not just giving someone something to eat today. Maybe it is making sure their land can produce, their work can pay, their harvest can be stored, their goods can reach a market, and their children can imagine a future that does not require them to leave home or join somebody else’s war.
This began as a personal note I wrote after years of carrying a question I could not resolve: what happens to dignity when a person cannot feed the people they love?
I used AI afterward to test the argument, identify where I was making assumptions, and help me preserve the thought trail without pretending it was a complete explanation. The experience, the question, and the responsibility are mine.