Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Gin in West Africa (book)

Dmitri van den Bersselaar, The King of Drinks: Schnapps Gin from Modernity to Tradition (Brill, 2007). Colonial and independent West Africa.

TOC

Chapter 1. Introduction: foreign imports, local meanings
Chapter 2. The Rise of Gin
Chapter 3. Becoming the King of Drinks
Chapter 4. ‘Bird gin’ and ‘money gin’: brands and marketing
Chapter 5. Poison or medicine? Changing perceptions of Dutch gin
Chapter 6. ‘Your very good health!’ Gin for an independent West Africa
Chapter 7. Schnapps gin from modernity to tradition
Chapter 8. Bibliography
Index

Guinea-Bissau, world's first narco-state?

According to the (London) Guardian newspaper, the former Portuguese colony now known as Guinea-Bissau may be the first narco-state. With only 1.5 million people, few police, and no jails, it now shares its sovereign space with Colombian drug lords who send cocaine to Europe via the little West African country. For more, see here.

Are Amy Winehouse and other drug-taking celebrities making West Africa the "coke coast"?

The UN official in charge of drugs and crime, Antonio Maria Costa, blames celebrities who openly take drugs (in particular Amy Winehouse) for glamorizing cocaine and thus helping to turn West Africa's former "gold coast" into a "coke coast." Drugs from Latin America are smuggled to Europe via poorly policed West African countries. Costa draws a historical analogy: once Europe devastated West Africa with the slave trade and now it devastates West Africa with the drugs trade. For more, see here.

Alcohol ravages South Africa's children

The poverty-stricken South African town of De Aar has the unenviable distinction of the world's highest reported incidence of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

Read more here.

Guinea-Bissau, allegedly Africa's first narco-state

According to the (London) Independent, 17 July 2007, drug gangs control Guinea-Bissau, a small West African state that formerly had been a Portuguese colony. For more, see here.

Ohio school defends serving gin to students at elementary graduation

An Ohio charter school that emphasizes African history and culture served gin to elementary school students as part of what they said was a Ghanian right of passage, and state education officials said they plan to investigate.

The CBC reports.

Commodities of Empire (from H-Empire)

Readers of ADHS may be interested in this post which appeared on H-Empire:

CFP: "Commodities of Empire" international workshop, London, July 13-14,
2007

The Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies (Open University) and
the Caribbean Studies Centre (London Metropolitan University) have
launched a collaborative research project entitled 'Commodities of
Empire'. Details of this project can be found on our website:
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/commodities-of-empire/index.h
tml

We are organising an international workshop in London, 13/14 July 2007,
and would like to hear from anybody interested in participating. We
would particularly like to hear from researchers wishing to attend from
Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America who are working on any
historical aspects of the global movement of commodities (i.e.
industrial crops, foodstuffs and stimulants).

For more details, please contact either Sandip Hazareesingh
(s.k.hazareesingh@open.ac.uk) or Jonathan Curry-Machado
(j.currymachado@londonmet.ac.uk).

Dr Jonathan Curry-Machado
Research Fellow
Caribbean Studies Centre
London Metropolitan University

Latin American drug dealers prefer euro instead of the dollar

Latin American drug dealers now prefer the euro over the dollar. For more, see here. The same International Herald Tribune article says that drugs now often enter Europe from West Africa (Latin American cocaine, Asian heroin, Chinese chemicals).

Africans in 18th cent. English tobacco advertising (article)

Catherine Molineux, "Pleasures of the Smoke: 'Black Virginians' in Georgian London's Tobacco Shops," William and Mary Quarterly 64/2 (Apriol 2007): 327-376. Richly illustsrated.

Gourmet "Fairtrade" coffee and its problems

"This is a story about gourmet coffee and genocide. It takes place in Rwanda...," (London) Observer, 25 February 2007, is an article by Alex Renton. Although he argues that Western coffee drinkers should buy higher priced Fairtrade (or fair trade) coffee to help poor coffee growers and their poverty stricken countries, he acknowledges problems: the farmers only get about 10% of the premium in the price that the consumer pays, only a few farmers in a few countries are able to participate in growing high grade coffee, and the world simply grows too much coffee for the size of the market for it. For more, see here.

Alcohol and history in Africa (article)

Justin Willis, "Drinking Power: Alcohol and History in Africa," History Compass 3 (2005). 13 pages in an electronic journal.

Rowntree chocolate industry: gender and imperialism (dissertation)

Emma Robertson, "'The romance of the cocoa bean': Women, gender and imperialism in the Rowntree chocolate industry" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of York [UK], 2004).

Settler agriculture in 19th-cent. Liberia (dissertation)

Willliam Ezra Allen, "Sugar and coffee: A history of settler agriculture in nineteenth-century Liberia" (Ph.D. dissertation, Florida International University, 2002).

Tobacco in Africa (article)

J.-L. Grootaers and Nelleke van der Zwan, "The use of tobacco in Africa," in Forms of wonderment: the history and collections of the Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal (Berg en Dal, Netherlands: Afrika Museum, 2002) 1: 56-69.

Beer as a local and transnational commodity in Africa (conference announcement)

Cross-posted from H-Announcements, a service of H-Net

Steven Van Wolputte Africa Research Centre, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 102 Tiensestraat Phone: + 32 16 32 54 96 fax: +32 16 32 59 02 Email: steven.vanwolputte@ant.kuleuven.be Visit the website at http://ppw.kuleuven.be/antropologie/arc/events/beer/beer_intro.html

On Friday February 16 2007 the Africa Research Centre (ARC) of the K.U.Leuven organizes a one-day workshop on “beer as a local and transnational commodity in Africa”. This workshop welcomes contributions from scholars across the humanities and social sciences working in and on Africa. The emphasis is on discussion and the exchange of ideas; graduate students in particular are encouraged to present their work. This workshop concentrates on the role of beer in Africa’s recent past and present. Taking beer and drinking as a tangible lead to study agency and subjectivity, this workshop’s ambition is to explore new, exciting and especially different pathways to study the cultural, social and political dynamics of colonialism and modernity. Central to our concern are the tensions and ambivalences epitomized by drinking alcohol in general and beer in particular. These tensions relate to economic insecurity, gender, authority, identity, migrant labour or centralized state rule – to name but a few – and they equally characterize day-to-day activities and the grand, hegemonic narratives (such as on apartheid, civilisation, tradition or globalisation) in the background. The dialectic between foreground and background, however, cannot be reduced to the simple opposition of global versus local, hegemony versus resistance or colonizer versus colonized. On the contrary: bottle stores, canteens, pubs and dance joints emerge as arenas where locality is continuously being negotiated, where colonial and contemporary identities are being made and unmade. The underlying question then is: what can microscopic studies of beer and drinking tell us about the ‘true nature’ of the colonial encounter? Of the postcolonial state, of modernity and of development in Africa? The deadline for submitting paper proposals is September 1 2006. Proposals should include a title, a 250 to 500-word abstract and the author’s contact information. They can be submitted to Steven Van Wolputte (steven.vanwolputte@ant.kuleuven.be), Africa Research Centre, Tiensestraat 102, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Tel: ++ 32 16 32 54 96; fax ++ 32 16 32 59 02. This call for papers, thematic outline and other information regarding this workshop can be found on http://ppw.kuleuven.be/antropologie/arc/events/beer/beer_intro.html or via the website of the Africa Research Centre (www.africaresearch.be). Tentative outline of themes 1. Bottles and brews Beer as commodity o Beers, frontiers, and the making and unmaking of boundaries o Beer and labour o Beer and monetization o Beer, emancipation and dependency o The social life of beer o Beer and (de-)commodification o consumption and production 2. A pub without beer? Imagining colonialism, modernity, and state o Beer and the history of apartheid o Legal and illegal brewing o Beer and the colonial state o Beer and governmentality o Beer and morality o Beer, hegemony and counterhegemony o Beer and the imagination of ‘race’ o Beer and authority o The politics of drinking 3. Through the drinking glass Identities and local dynamics of change o Beer, homogenization and heterogeneity o Beer, village, city o Beer and religion o Beer, self-fashioning and subjectivity o Beer and ethnicity o Beer and the (un)making of identity o Beer and morality o Beer and modernity o Alcohol and violence 4. Beers and locality The cultural logic of drinking o Beer and locality o Beer and sociality o Beer and ethnography o The semantics of alcohol and beer o Beer, authority and subversion

Klein review of Akyeampong, Drink, Power and Cultural Change (Ghana)

Emmanuel Akyeampong. Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Recent Times. Portsmouth, N.H.: James Currey, 1996. xxiii + 189 pp. Map, photographs, notes, bibliography, and index. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-435-08996-X;  ISBN 0-435-08994-3; $23.00 (paper), ISBN .

Reviewed by: Martin Klein , University of Toronto.

Published by: H-Africa (January, 1999)

This book is an important contribution to the increasing body of literature on the history of alcoholic drink and popular culture in Africa. In the first two chapters, Akyeampong sets his study in an analysis of the role of water, blood and alcohol in the traditional cultures of southern Ghana, arguing that the symbolism of the three fluids is crucial to power and spirituality. This provides a theoretical framework for the book, but once done, he focuses not on the ritual uses of alcohol, but on its social role. Palm wine was originally the drink of choice in southern Ghana, but during the slave trade period, it was replaced by rum and schnapps.

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This means that like the nations of northern Europe, Ghana was an area where men drank hard liquor, seen as "hot" or "strong" and clearly preferred it to palm wine or beer. It also means that as in northern Europe, alcoholism has long been a serious problem. Liquor was a prestige good in pre-colonial Ghana, and as such, was controlled by the elders and the politically powerful. Women did not drink and young men rarely so, and then only as a result of the beneficence of the rich and powerful. Palm wine and liquor were central to the exercise of power. There was, however, one day during the annual Asante odwira festival when basins of rum were laid out for the ordinary classes. This was a signal for a day in which people were free to act drunk and under cover of inebriation to do and say what they wished, a ritual note of rebellion against state and a rigid social order.

Akyeampong begins and ends with the ritual importance of blood, water and alcohol, but the heart of the book is the social history of drinking. Once young men moved to the mines or the cities, they were free to drink and had the money to pay for it. Drinking, as in many other male cultures, became the basis of peer group socializing. Young men gathered after work to drink together, and for some to escape the tensions of an oppressive work situation. Chapter Three deals with these young men's drinking groups. Chapter Four deals with the inevitable response, a temperance movement, which was an alliance between the churches and elders who feared that uncontrolled drinking would lead to disorder and disrespect for authority.

The temperance efforts failed because liquor duties provided a large part of the colonial state's revenues, up to 40% in the pre-World War I years. Chapter Five deals with two developments. First, drinking underwrote the development of music, dance and theatre. Second, increasingly, locally brewed gin called akpeteshie replaced imported liquors, much to the distress of colonial rulers unable to tax it. Chapter Six deals with many of the political issues emerging from this drinking culture and the way they were used by Nkrumah's Convention People's Party, which mobilized support in the akpeteshie bars. Finally, in Chapter Seven he deals with alcoholism and despair in post-Nkrumah Ghana.

Throughout this, Akyeampong links the form and significance of drinking to power and status. There are crucial differences in what people drink, where they drink, and how they drink. Drink involves markers of social status. In spite of the CPP's patronage of the akpeteshie culture, the social divide grew after independence. The new elite drank at home and in comfortable hotel lounges. "For the winners," he writes, "alcohol has been a prized commeodity; ironically, it has also been a consolation prize for the losers" (p. 157). The poor continued to drown their sorrows in palm wine and at akpeteshie bars. Akyeampong also deals well with gender questions. Though women produced and sold alcoholic beverages, they rarely drank until recently. The drinking culture has been a male culture, for which women have paid a high price.

All this is done with great skill. He uses high life lyrics, proverbs and interview data very well. Akyeampong makes the culture and politics of drink central to an understanding of modern Ghana. He is terse, perhaps too terse in places, and the argument is well made. If I have any criticisms, it is that much of the discussion of the ritual importance of the three fluids is irrelevant to his central subject. He would have been better off finding his theoretical framework in the comparative history of alcoholic drink. On the other hand, there are questions he could have expanded. I would have liked more on the relationship between popular culture and the drinking culture that under-wrote much of it. I would have liked more on the importance of hard liquor. He mentions beer in many places, but it is rarely discussed, though in much of Africa and elsewhere, beer is the ordinary man's drink. A man drinks akpeteshie, gin or vodka to get smashed. A man can get drunk on beer, but it takes a lot of work. Beer is a social drink.

Perhaps it is better to be terse and to leave us eager for more. Emmanuel Akyeampong is a fine historian. We can expect more fine history from him.

 

 

 

 

Library of Congress Call Number: HV5247.G4A49 1996

Subjects:

• Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- Ghana -- History
• Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- Social aspects -- Ghana
• Social change -- Ghana
• Ghana -- Social conditions

Citation: Martin Klein

.  "Review of Emmanuel Akyeampong, Drink, Power and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Recent Times," H-Africa, H-Net Reviews, January, 1999. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=22927917631501.

Copyright © 1999 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

Richards review of Willis, Potent Brews

Justin Willis. Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1999. Eastern African Studies Series. Co-published with James Currey Publishers, Oxford, England. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002. xii + 304 pp. Tables, maps, notes, appendices, bibliography, index. $44.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-8214-1476-3; ISBN 0-8214-1475-5; $22.95 (paper), ISBN .

Reviewed by: Sarah C. Richards , Department of International Health, Boston University School of Public Health.

Published by: H-Africa (June, 2003)

Potent Brews: History of East African Alcohol Straight Up

Justin Willis has produced a work of impressive scholarship, in which he has marshaled diverse archival documents, supported by current surveys and interviews in three areas of East Africa, to chronicle the dynamic role of alcohol in shaping power structures over 150 years. He traces how alcohol has been used, argued about, and remembered in the struggle to control the well-being of society. These tensions largely fall along familiar age and gender lines; throughout the period women have been the main producers and men, especially elder men (at least until the last thirty years), have been the main consumers of alcohol--these are practically the only constants in an increasingly complex equation of contested rights over production, profits from sales, and the consumption of different types of drinks. In the nineteenth century there was a triadic contest for authority between elder men, younger men, and women, with the elder men maintaining ritual and moral authority symbolized through their exclusive access to alcohol. The caravan trade introduced opportunities for young men (the "warrior class") to gain power, and therefore access to women and alcohol, outside the control of elder men. With the advent of the colonial era the state became a fourth agent in the contest for authority, and a source of rhetoric about proper types of alcohol for different types of citizens. The post-colonial state and its decline saw both a fracturing of control over society's well-being as well as control over access to alcohol. As Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania enter the twenty-first century, alcohol production, sales, and consumption are essentially market-regulated, so that the freedom to produce and consume a wide variety of alcoholic drinks coexists with attempts to reclaim "traditional" mores of drinking controlled by elder men. Potent Brews is a well-written, captivating history of the shifting rhetoric and behavior around alcohol, and can serve as a valuable classroom resource despite limitations in its last chapters.

The strengths of the book are in its organization, style of prose, and thorough archival research. Willis has divided the book into four chronological sections; within each are thematic chapters with some overlap in time, which provide for examination of detail within larger social and economic contexts. Willis writes clearly; he explains the premise of each section and chapter, amasses evidence in logical order, then summarizes and links it to the next argument. This smooth progression is a boon for the reader, but at the same time seems to put his repeated reminders of ambiguity, contradiction, and alternatives in question. The introduction, "Ambiguous Power: Drink, Drunkenness and Society," lays out the central premise of the book: "There is ... ample reason to argue that people have been, and are, faced with profound and urgent challenges to their well-being which come from other directions [than heavy drinking]; that such challenges became more acute in the late twentieth century; and that arguments over the very nature of drinking have been and are involved in central debates over power and authority which occur in the context of these challenges" (p. 5). This section also includes the essential description of how and where various types of alcohol have been produced in the region over the period of study. Photographs and tables add to this comprehensive but not unnecessarily detailed technical section.

Having made a convincing argument for the "central role which alcohol has played in the making of power" (p. 11) in East Africa, Willis begins the delineation of that role in elder male power in part 1, "Drink, Sex and Violence." "[I]deas about power over individual and societal well-being were generally the basis of the authority of senior men in the face of the potent forces of sex [women's basis of power] and violence [young mens' basis of power]; and ... the ways in which people used alcohol and talked of its use were central to the reproduction of those ideas" (p. 60). The examination of these ideas and practices, and their dynamics during the caravan trade period, build a kind of suspense for the reader, who anticipates that the European colonials will complicate the contest over power and authority. The reader is not disappointed: the strongest, most convincing chapters of the book are in part 2, "Native Liquor, Money and the Colonial State, c. 1900-60," those that utilize the documentation of the first Europeans to the area, and the colonial era records. In this section, Willis explores the debates around where, when, and who should produce and consume which types of alcohol (traditional fermented drinks such as banana, palm, and millet brews; imported bottled beer, whiskey, and wine; locally bottled beer; and locally produced distillates). The shifts in the states' determination of which types of alcohol consumption and production contribute to the "health" and "development" of East African societies are fascinating and lend insight to understandings of the colonial state beyond simply (or complexly) the study of alcohol.[1]

As an anthropologist, I was impressed with the number (274) of qualitative interviews Willis had undertaken, and the 217 survey responses on the drinking and making of alcohol. These were collected in three very different areas: Hoima District in western Uganda, Jajiado District of southern Kenya (on the Tanzanian border), and Rungwe/Kyela District of southern Tanzania. Yet with the volume of data that must have been produced, there is little idea of the perspectives of women and young men interviewed. Although the patriarchal voice of elder males, and their analysis of what has gone wrong with drinking practice (and social order) is clear, if not uniform, the reader gets no sense of the alternative, oppositional, or contradictory voices of those not in power. Is this because the respondents all gave the researcher what they thought he wanted to hear? It is impossible for the reader to make a guess, since Willis himself offers no information about how the interviews were conducted or his own role in their collection. This weakness is apparent in part 3, "Drink and Development," but the reader is held by the very informative discussions of the rise of bottled beer and illicit distillation in the post-colonial period. Especially interesting is Willis's description of the contradictory views surrounding the economic health of the state, types of drinks produced, and their producers and consumers.

Part 4, "Drinking in the 1990s," was disappointing on several counts. The most striking gap is the total absence of any mention of HIV/AIDS. This is a mystifying omission, since HIV/AIDS is inextricably linked to the gender and civilian-state relations in the production of social authority Willis describes. Women who produce illegal drinks or are not licensed pay bribes and fees to stay in an economically precarious business. It is not inconceivable that sex, and thus sexually transmitted diseases, is a part of this economic survival strategy. He quotes one woman from the Rungwe/Kyela District: "The drink in the past did not cause any harm because knowledge was very little.... Now they mix many drugs into the drinks. That is why people are getting drunk so much, unlike the past. They are putting many intoxicating things in the beer. That is why many people are getting infected with very many diseases, many infectious diseases which were not there in the past ... That is why deaths are so many now" (p. 262, emphasis added). Another respondent said, "Now I'm blaming drinking. At the same time it has caused the breakage of many people's marriages, more than long ago ... now there are so many things which are mixed up, and again diseases have increased more than long ago" (p. 264). Given the high prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS across East Africa during the period of research, and given that the epidemic was certainly in the public eye by the 1990s, it seems apparent to me that people were talking about the intersection of alcohol, sex, and HIV/AIDS.[2] What could be more of a threat to individual and social well-being than HIV/AIDS in these countries? While I can understand that Willis may not have wanted to ask people directly about this crucial intersection, his total failure to address it in his analysis is a major shortcoming of an otherwise comprehensive study.

I would recommend this work for anyone interested in the history of East Africa or the social history of alcohol. Because of the excellent organization and accessible writing style, this book would be useful as an African history text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in African history. Instructors, however, should be prepared to use additional resources to discuss the interaction of alcohol and HIV/AIDS and the resulting effects on power structures and struggles for authority in the region.

Notes

[1]. For example, traditional fermented drinks have variously been officially deemed nutritious and important to the local diet, unhygienic and dangerously impure, a detriment to nation-building and progress, and important to local economy in a global market. Willis is careful to point out that popular discourse and official (or advertising) rhetoric have often been at odds.

[2]. In a quote used to illustrate the popular discourse on "drinking crises," one respondent reports "[T]his beer is drunk on the road-side, they just have little vikao [drinking-groups], there is not a [separate] place for the children, the woman, the school student--they are all together. As you can see, there are many prostitutes" (p. 264). I believe that Willis missed the opportunity to draw HIV/AIDS into the discussion of the "sense that the ability to manage health and wealth have been compromised by a modernity which has offered little in return" (pp. 265-266).

Library of Congress Call Number: HV5646 .W55 2002

Subjects:

• Alcoholism--Africa, East--History.
• Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Africa, East--History.
• Alcohol industry--Africa, East--History.

Citation: Sarah C. Richards . "Review of Justin Willis, Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1999," H-Africa, H-Net Reviews, June, 2003. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=247201058802296.

Copyright © 2003 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

Drugs & Alcohol in Africa (workshop)

Drugs and Alcohol in Africa:

Production, Distribution, Consumption & Control

A One-day Workshop
23 May 2006, Nissan Theatre,
St. Antony’s College
Oxford, England

Africa has recently emerged as a focus of the global ‘war on drugs’: international and local drugs control agencies and others warn of a growing role for the continent as a transit point for cocaine and heroin, while also lamenting the prevalence of drugs and alcohol commerce and use within the continent, especially among youth.  Drugs and alcohol are increasingly tied to broader economic and public health issues including unemployment, criminality, family disintegration, and HIV infection.

The one-day workshop will draw together scholars in both alcohol and drugs studies who will explore the contemporary alarm from historical, social scientific, behavioural science and policy perspectives.

The keynote talk on “Alcoholism and Narcotics Use:  Changing Perspectives on Mental Illness in Africa,” will be provided by Emmanuel Akyeampong, Professor of History at Harvard University and author of Drink, Power and Cultural Change:  A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana (1996) and ‘Diaspora and Drug Trafficking in West Africa’ (2005). 

Presenters include: Justin Willis (Durham); Susan Beckerleg (London); Deborah Bryceson (Leiden); Terence Ranger (Oxford); Laurent Laniel (Paris); Neil Carrier (Oxford); Henry Bernstein (SOAS); Charles Ambler (Texas); Gernot Klantschnig (Oxford); Axel Klein (Kent); David Anderson (Oxford) and Stephen Ellis (Leiden). 

The workshop is open to all, but we ask that you contact us in advance to let us know you plan to attend.  To attend and for more information contact Gernot.Klantschnig@sant.ox.ac.uk or Charles.Ambler@sant.ox.ac.uk

Alcohol and the Slave Trade in West Africa, 1400-1850

Charles Ambler, “Alcohol and the Slave Trade in West Africa, 1400-1850.” Drugs, labor, and colonial expansion. Ed. William Jankowiak and Daniel Bradburd. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003, pp. 73 - 88.

'Eritreans must have their coffee'

Although Eritrea produces no significant amounts of coffee itself, the caffeinated beverage is an essential part of life in the country. Reuters reports.

Experts start Kenya cocaine tests

Some 1.1 metric tons of cocaine, worth $88m, is being tested in Kenya, amid fears that some of the drug may have leaked onto the international market. The BBC reports.

Dilimma over cocaine haul

The destruction of Sh6.4 billion worth of cocaine netted in Nairobi may present a myriad of questions even after the court has granted authority for its disposal.

Whether all the 954 sachets netted, each weighing about one kilogramme with an estimated street value of about Sh10 million, will be tested to verify their contents before disposal is the biggest question.

And if they are to be destroyed without thorough testing and verification, there will always be speculation that the haul had been tampered with and cocaine replaced with other powders.

The East African Standard (Nairobi) reports.

Chew on this

Every couple of days London’s Heathrow Airport receives a strange cargo. Bundles and bundles of shrub wrapped in banana leaves arriving on planes from Yemen and East Africa. This is qat - a mild narcotic, which after years of wrangling, is still legal in the UK.

The Yemen Times reports.

Internet 'pharmacies'

Legal prescription drugs are being trafficked illegally over the internet, the UN's anti-drugs body has warned. The BBC reports.

Globalizing Coffee in NW Tanzania (Book)

Brad Weiss, Sacred Trees, Bitter Harvests: Globalizing Coffee in Northwest Tanzania (Westport, CT: Heinemann, 2003).

From Cocoa and Coffee to Oil (Article)

Jedrzej George Frynas, George Wood, and R.M.S. Soares de Oliveira, "Business and Politics in Sao Tome e Principe: From Cocoa Monoculture to Petro-State," Lusotopie (2003): 33-58.

'Trade Not Aid'

Andrew Rugasira has just secured the first contract ever for an African coffee producer to supply direct to a British supermarket. That's just the start of his plan to revive his battered homeland, he tells The Observer in Uganda.

Ghanaians urged to consume more cocoa

Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Ghana's Deputy Minister of Works and Housing on Thursday said it is universally acknowledged that cocoa has great aphrodisiac benefits and that instead of people relying on viagra and other concoctions and bitters they should rather drink more cocoa which is cheaper and healthier. Read more.

'If one does not drink beer, you can go to church - or you can drink beer'

THE PROMISE of a "good life" - that is, one characterised by drinking beer - was the motivation that led the prosecution's tenth witness in the main Caprivi high treason trial to become part of a secessionist movement in the Caprivi Region, the witness testified yesterday. All.africa.com reports.

Alcohol and History in Africa (Article)

Justin Willis, "Drinking Power: Alcohol and History in  Africa," [Blackwell] History Compass, 2005.  Fifteen-page article available at an on-line electronic journal.  Includes 32 notes and a substantial bibliography.  Willis (University of Durham) has written many articles on alcohol in Africa and a book, Potent  Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, c.1850-1999 (2002).

'Edopesiepe' = man 'one who lies on one side'

News 24 reports that alcoholism among men in Uganda's Iteso tribe has left the tribe's women sexually starved and emotionally neglected, a cabinet minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"Men just grip their women tightly in bed without any function. Women are crying that their husbands are either impotent or too weak to produce children," the Daily Monitor newspaper quoted Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Christine Amongin Aporu, herself an Itesot, as saying.

The Iteso tribe, one of Uganda's biggest with a population of about 1.5 million, dwell in the country's northeastern Teso region and according to tribal leaders heavy consumption of the local brew among men is leading to impotency and domestic violence.

Francis Epetait, a member of parliament from the area, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa : "The men sleep for just eight hours a day and the rest of the time is spent on drinking. It is a serious and unfortunate situation and we are telling people to change their lifestyles."

Itesot women had taken to nicknaming their husbands "edopesiepe", meaning "one who lies on one side", he added.

Local officials in the four districts covering the Teso region have imposed bylaws banning consumption of alcohol before 17:00 and after 22:00 in an effort to address the problem. - Sapa-dpa

Uganda's dubious boozing record

The East African reports (15 August 2005) that last month, the World Health Organisation ranked Uganda the leading consumer of alcohol in the world. Per capita consumption is 19.5 litres, according to the report, closely followed by Luxembourg at 17.54 litres and the Czech Republic at 16.21 litres. The 2004 Global Status Report says Ugandans spend $145 million on alcohol annually. Find the full story here.

Drug cartels using African connections

CNN reports (27 July 2005) from Dakar, Senegal that South American drug cartels are moving their logistics bases to West Africa, lured by lax policing in an unstable region and the presence of small, underground criminal groups, United Nations experts say. Drug cartels are increasingly using West Africa as a hub for smuggling, working with criminal networks from the region who market cannabis, cocaine and heroin in Europe and North America, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Read more here.

Alcohol poisoning kills 49 Kenyans

CNN reports (26 June 2005) from Nairobi that an illegal brew laced with industrial alcohol caused the deaths of 49 people in Kenya, medical workers said Sunday, while police continued to search for a woman suspected of distributing the drink to local bars. More than 174 people were hospitalized Saturday and Sunday, after drinking the homemade brew containing methanol -- a toxic wood alcohol added to the concoction to give it more kick. Read more here.

Farmers Cry Over Cocoa Hybrid Seedling Price Hike

Accra Mail reports (13 June 2005) that cocoa farmers in the Agona district of Ghana's Central Region have expressed concern about the increase in the price of hybrid cocoa seedlings. Find the full story here.

'Wisdom Weed'

A website entitled 'The Afrocentric Experience: Ganja - The Herb of Inspiration' can be found here. The site outlines the role of marijuana in the religious and cultural life of Rastafarians from the Caribbean, the United States, Europe and Africa.

Kenya to outlaw alcohol adverts

BBC News reports (10 June 2005) that the Kenyan government says it will soon ban alcohol and tobacco advertisements from television and billboards. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the ban was intended to protect children from the harmful effects of alcohol consumption. Tobacco adverts are also set to be banned. In February, tobacco and liquor adverts were outlawed near schools. Last month, the government said it would ban smoking in public places and raise taxes on cigarettes. Find the full story here.

Africa

Akyeampong, Emmanuel. “The State and Alcohol Revenues: Promoting ‘Economic Development’ in Gold Coast/Ghana, 1919 to the Present.” In Jack Blocker and Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, eds. The Changing Face of Drink: Substance, Imagery, and Behaviour (Ottawa, Canada: Social History, Inc., 1997), 359-380. [Abstract: “Colonial and independent governments in twentieth-century Gold Coast/Ghana have consistently viewed alcohol revenues as a major source of government income. The importance of the alcohol industry reflects not only the skewed nature of the Ghanaian economy, but also indicates the existence of a huge local demand for alcohol. A vocal temperance group, whose activities date from the colonial period, has sought to challenge and revise the state’s dependence on alcohol revenues. To explore the resulting dilemma, it is necessary to examine the cultural and historical circumstances that elevated the economic significance of alcohol, the development of the alcohol industry and its role in the country’s economy, and the relations of Ghanaian governments to the alcohol industry” (359).]

Alpern, Stanley B. “What Africans Got for their Slaves: A Master List of European Trade Goods.” History in Africa 22 (1995), 5-43. [An annotated list of European goods acquired by African slavers on the western coast; includes drugs and alcoholic beverages.]

Grundlingh, Albert. “Boers, Bantu and Beer in South Africa: The King’s Afrikaners? Enlistment and Ethnic Identity in the Union of South Africa’s Defence Force During the Second World War, 1939 45.” Journal of African History 40:3 (1999), 351-366.

London, L. “The ‘Dop’ System, Alcohol Abuse and Social Control amongst Farm Workers in South Africa: A Public Health Challenge.” Social Science and Medicine 48:10 (1999), 1407-1414.

Mager, Anne. “’Boers, Bantu and Beer in South Africa’: The First Decade of ‘European Beer’ in Apartheid South Africa: The State, the Brewers and the Drinking Public, 1962-72.” Journal of African History 40:3 (1999), 367-389.

Unsigned. “The African Beer Market.” Brauwelt International No. 1 (1999), 10-15.

Willis, Justin. “Enkurma Sikitoi: Commodization, Drink, and Power among the Maasai.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 32:2-3 (1999), 339-357.

These citations originally appeared in recent “Current Literature” sections of The Social History of Alcohol Review. Jon Miller and David Fahey compiled and edited them. They were also available on the Alcohol and Drugs History Society’s old website, http://athg.org.

Swakopmund Council acts against drunken workers

The Namibian (Windhoek) reports (13 May 2005) that employees and contract workers of the Swakopmund Municipality will be subjected to random alcohol testing from June 1. The Town Council approved guidelines at its monthly meeting at the end of April. This means employees will be subjected to random testing at 08h00 and 14h00 every day. The Council approved an Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Policy in April 2000 when the problem of staff members reporting for work while under the influence of alcohol became more serious. Find the full story here.

Elephant Kinjia Coffee Stampedes into Starbucks

Business Wire reports (2 May 2005) that Starbucks Coffee Company has introduced Elephant Kinjia, an east African coffee as lucky to be here as it is remarkable in flavor. "Elephants don't intentionally trample coffee plants, but they don't really sidestep them either," laughs Dub Hay, Starbucks senior vice president of Coffee. "The Blackburn Estate, from which we bought this extraordinary coffee, had to come up with a creative solution to make sure people, elephants and coffee can all thrive in the same geographical area."

The Blackburn Estate stands just outside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the western slopes of Mount Oldeani, an extinct volcano in northern Tanzania. Until recently, indigenous elephants regularly walked through the fertile coffee farm on their way to the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest unbroken caldera and an impressive game preserve. Their commute was a disaster for coffee plants. Instead of engaging in an ultimately futile attempt to re-route the elephants, the farmers created a wide, natural trail directly through the middle of the farm, hoping the elephants would choose the trail instead of continuing to trample the coffee plants.

The elephants began to use the "kinjia," or "pathway," almost immediately, and Starbucks sixth Black Apron Exclusives(TM) coffee was able to grow and flourish. Named for this new road, Elephant Kinjia is a coffee with medium to full body and flavor marked with wonderful black currant notes and a chocolaty softness in the finish.

Find the full story here.

Why Coffee Farmers Are a Troubled Lot

The Nation (Nairobi) reports (30 April 2005) that the killing of a coffee farmer in Gatundu, Thika, brought to the fore the problems that have plagued the coffee industry since it was liberalised in 1990s. The sector has been volatile since then, especially due to moves to split the giant savings and credit cooperative societies. Some growers were not comfortable with the idea and soon two rival groups emerged. They fought one another, leaving a trail of destruction in which at least one person has been killed. Find the full story here.

Nigerian breweries closing

Vanguard (Lagos) reports (20 April 2005) that authorities of the Nigerian Breweries Plc met on April 21 with officials of the Abia State government to brief them on the reasons behind the recent closure of the company's brewery in Aba and the subsequent laying off of the workers. The workers were taken aback early this month when information filtered in that the management had decided to close the brewery which is one of the highest employers of labour in the commercial city. Find the full story here.

Alcohol Abuse Rife At Unam

New Era (Windhoek) reports (15 March 2005) that alcohol abuse is said to be one of the most serious problems at the University of Namibia (Unam)'s main campus in Windhoek. Find the full story here.

Africa's chocolate industry uses child slave labor

Southern Arizona's KVOA News reports (25 February 2005) that 70% of the cocoa used to make the chocolate consumed in the US comes from West Africa. The problem, however, is that critics say that Africa's cocoa industry uses young slave labor to harvest it. Find the full story here.

More and more Africans taking up smoking

BBC News reports (18 March 2005) that with tobacco advertising banned in many Western countries, cigarette manufacturers are increasingly targeting countries in Africa. And more and more Africans are taking up the habit. African countries are experiencing the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries. Find the full story here.

Coffee buzz lifts wartorn Rwanda

BBC News reported in March 2004 on the development of Rwanda's coffee cooperative, which, helped by groups such as US Agency for International Development, has now swelled to about 1,500 members and has an agreement to supply the Union Coffee Roasters (UCR). The article goes on to describe the ways in which the coffee cooperative has helped to improve the lives of the growers and their communities. Find the full story here.

Narcotics Readily Available As Abuse Rises in Tanzania

The East African (Nairobi) reports (14 March 2005) that Tanzania is experiencing an increase in narcotics consumption, the United States warned last week. It attributed the rise to economic liberalisation and an upsurge in tourism, especially in Zanzibar. The new US report on the international narcotics trade implies that use of illegal drugs is growing more quickly in Tanzania than in Kenya or Uganda. Find the full story here.

Khat Prices Increase As Growers Take to Vanilla

The Monitor (Kampala) reported on 18 February 2005 that the price of khat - also known as mairungi- a herbal drug with an intoxicating effect - has been hiked. Growers at Mabira Forest on the Kampala - Jinja Highway, said this follows the introduction of vanilla farming as an alternative and competitive income generating agricultural activity. Find the full story here.

Swazi police target marula drinkers

BBC News reported in January 2002 that police in Swaziland have issued strict warnings against the sale and consumption of marula, an intoxicating fruit drink that has unleashed chaos on the southern African kingdom. Traffic accidents have risen to alarming levels, as have drunken brawls and work absenteeism since the marula fruit came into season earlier this month. At just R5 (45 cents) a litre, the beer made from the marula fruit - which is similar to the mango - is Swaziland's favourite tipple. Marula drinkers say the beer is invigorating and does not cause bad hangovers. Find the full story here.

Alcohol In Caribbean Slave Societies

An essay by Frederick H. Smith, entitled "Spirits And Spirituality: Alcohol In Caribbean Slave Societies," can be found here.

Ancient Viticulture in North Africa

Greene, J.A. "The Beginning of Grape Cultivation and Wine Production in Phoenician/Punic North Africa." Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology 11 (1995), 311-322.

Alcohol and the African slave trade (article)

Alpern, Stanley B. "What Africans Got for their Slaves: A Master List of European Trade Goods." History in Africa 22 (1995), 5-43. [An annotated list of European goods acquired by African slavers on the western coast; includes drugs and alcoholic beverages.]

Cocoa in Nigeria (Dissertation)

Ezekial Ayodele Walker, "The Rise and Decline of Cocoa Production in Southwestern Nigeria from 1900 to 1993" (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1999).

Crusade Launched to Sell Coffee in the Local Market: Kenya

The Nation reports (9 March 2005) from Nairobi that a campaign to promote coffee consumption locally has been launched. It will also seek to open up new markets in China, Japan and the Middle East, instead of relying on traditional markets. Find the full story here.

Starbucks plans to buy more African coffee

MSNBC reports (6 March 2005) from Livingstone, Zambia that Starbucks plans to raise its coffee purchases from Africa, although the bulk of supply will continue to come from Latin America. The retailer also plans to open 1,500 more stores in 2005. Find the full story here.

Alcohol, Racial Segregation and Popular Politics in Northern Rhodesia (Article)

Charles Ambler, "Alcohol, Racial Segregation and Popular Politics in Northern Rhodesia," in The Journal of African History 31 (1990): 295-313. The article is available through JSTOR.

Coffee Exhibition Opens in Livingstone, Zambia

The Times of Zambia reports (3 March 2005) that a highly-represented second International African Fine Coffee conference and exhibition opened this week at Zambezi Sun Hotel in Livingstone. Find the full story here.

Dance On Alcohol Abuse Moves Audience to Tears

The Nation reports (3 March 2005) from Nairobi that a dramatised dance on alcohol prevention among youths moved the audience to tears at the Eastern Provincial Schools Drama Festival at Machakos Boys Secondary School. Find the full story here.

Time to step up war on drug abuse in Kenya

The Standard Online reports (3 March 2005) that the United Nations has told the Government to set up a co-ordinating body to fight widespread drug abuse. The call came as a new global report identified Kenya as a hub on a major international drug trafficking route. Find the full story here. An editorial on the same story can be found here.

Heroin use on the rise in Africa

BBC News reports (2 March 2005) that the United Nations drugs watchdog says the practice of injecting drugs is on the rise in Africa. The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said drugs such as heroin were becoming more common in eastern and southern Africa. The INCB annual report noted that in countries emerging from conflict, drug abuse continues among child soldiers. Find the full story here.

Tsumeb Residents Worry Over Youth Drunkenness

For AllAfrica.com, Crispin Inambao reports (22 February 2005) that despite the devastating effects of alcohol on the social fabric, the high number of tipplers has alarmed politicians and residents alike at Tsumeb. Find the full story here.

Warning: May produce extreme loquacity, inane laughing, and eventually semicoma (Khat)

The University of Pennsylvania's African Studies Center has a page, entitled "Everything about Khat," which can be found here.  DrugScopes' page on khat can be found here.  Information on khat in Somalia can be found here.

"Coloured" People in South Africa (Article)

Jeremy Creighton Martens, "Conflicting Views of 'Coloured' People in the South African Liquor Bill Debate of 1928," Canadian Journal of African Studies 35/2 (2001): 313-338.

Beer in Cameroon (Article)

Lynn Schler, "Looking through a Glass of Beer: Alcohol in the Cultural Spaces of Colonial Douala, 1910-1945" Inernational Journal of African Historical Studies 35/2-3 (2002): 315-334.

Drinking in Kenya (Article)

Justin Willis, "New Generation Drinking: The Uncertain Boundaries of Criminal Enterprise in Modern Kenya," African Affairs 102 (2003): 241-260.

Uganda's Coffee Sparks US Interests

For The Monitor (Kampala), Joseph Olanyo reports (15 February 2005) that new hope for Uganda's coffee lingers in the horizons as the organic coffee project in the western region begins to simmer. Coffee investors from the United States are targeting Uganda's coffee grown in an environmental friendly manner. Also known as shade coffee grown mostly in the mountainous areas of Rwenzori and Kisoro, the coffee has a big potential niche in the US market.

Alcohol in Africa (Books Reviewed)

For African Studies Review (December 2003), Bruce Fetter reviews Justin Willis, Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1999 (Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa/Athens: Ohio University Press /Oxford: James Currey, 2002); and Deborah Fay Bryceson, ed., Alcohol in Africa: Mixing Business, Pleasure, and Politics (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heineman, 2002). 

The Dark Side of Chocolate

For Fredericksburg's The Free-Lance Star, Jennifer Motl reports (13 February 2005) that poor West African farm children are still being exploited to make some of the chocolate that is bought and consumed in the United States. Read the full story here.

Alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1999

Justin Willis' website devoted to the history of alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1999, can be found here.

Bob Marley Anniversary Spotlights Rasta Religion

For National Geographic News online (4 February 2005), Stefan Lovgren reports on the month-long celebration in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa marking the anniversary of Bob Marley's birth. The festivities are being held in the African country due to its association with the Rastafarian religion, which Marley followed.  The full article can be found here.

Eagle: Africa's New Sorghum-Based Beer

For iafrica.com (2 February 2005), Lynn Bolin reports that SABMiller, one of the world's largest brewers, has launched a new brand of clear sorghum beer, Eagle, which is aimed at helping African sorghum beer drinkers move up the beer ladder to clear lager by bridging the gap between the two.

Children high on sewage

This article by Ishbel Matheson from the BBC News website (dated Friday, July 30, 1999) explains the history of jenkem.

The article begins:

At the Lusaka sewage ponds, two teenage boys plunge their hands into the dark brown sludge, gathering up fistfuls and stuffing it into small plastic bottles. They tap the bottles on the ground, taking care to leave enough room for methane to form at the top. A sour smell rises in the hot sun, but the boys seem oblivious to the stench and the foul nature of their task.

They are manufacturing "Jenkem", a disgusting, noxious mixture made from fermented sewage. It is cheap, potent and very popular among the thousands of street-children in Lusaka. When they cannot afford glue or are too scared to steal petrol, these youngsters turn to Jenkem as a way of getting high.

"It lasts about an hour", says one user, 16-year-old Luke Mpande, who prefers Jenkem to other substances.

"With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life."

Again, here is the link to the full text.