Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Noncommercial alcohol as a problem

The International Center for Alcohol Policies recently released a report, Noncommercial Alcohol in Three Regions, that looks at central and eastern Europe (such as Belarus and Ukraine), subsaharan Africa (such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe), and South Asia (such as Sri Lanka).  For more, see here.  The report defines noncommercial alcohol as "traditional beverages produced for home consumption or limited local trade and counterfeit or unregistered products." 

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.

Christian missionaries, Arabica coffee, and cocoa in Africa (Internet post)

In an H-World post on 11 July 2006 Roger B. Beck (Eastern Illinois University) pointed out that European missionaries played an important role in introducing cash crops to Africa. The (French Catholic) Holy Ghost Fathers developed Arabica coffee in what became Kenya during the second half of the nineteenth century, a coffee variety which resisted pests and disease. The (Swiss Protestant) Basel Mission introduced cocoa to the Gold Coast (later Ghana) during the nineteenth century. Its trading company made large profits in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

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.

Juju beer

The nine-day Green Week Festival in Berlin, Germany’s most important trade fair, ended on Sunday with a spectacular exhibition by a Ghanaian who had showed up at the fair with ‘juju’ beer, served in a calabash.

Almost everyone, including some delegates from the European Union and the German Ministry of Agriculture, who turned up at the fair, was carried away by the exhibition of the Ghanaian, whose ‘juju’ beer had no alcoholic content, and yet was powerful enough to resist the minus eight degree temperature.

The beer, made with palm kernels, passion fruit and banana flavouring, had been named ‘juju’ (cult) because of its high boozing content.

The Ghanaian Chronicle reports.

Ghana and Drug Trafficking (Article)

Emmanuel Akyeampong, "Diaspora and Drug Trafficking in West Africa: A Case Study of Ghana," African Affairs 104 (July 2005): 429-47. From colonial times till today.

Cocoa in Ivory Coast

For the AP, Todd Pitman reports on the massive cocoa sales which finance most everything--including both sides of Ivory Coast's civil war.

On the streets of this skyscraper-lined West African metropolis, tension and rumors of an imminent return to war are always thick in the air — and so too, is the sweet smell of chocolate. Despite more than half a decade of coups, fighting and failed peace deals, a $2 billion a year cocoa industry is a booming in Ivory Coast, producing more of the raw material for chocolate than any other country on the planet.

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.

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.

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.