Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1999

by Willis, Justin

• ISBN13: 9780852554715
• ISBN10: 0852554710
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: James Currey

Summary

This is the first general history of alcohol and drinking in East Africa. It contributes to an emerging field of African social history in distinctive and innovative ways. Willis's central theme is power - from customary beliefs in alcohol as a symbol of authority and a means of enhancement and privilege, to the use of power in advertising and discourse on the consumption of modern bottled beers and spirits. It is Willis's contention that attitudes towards alcohol have become more similar across the region over time. Willis achieves a full chronological span of nearly two centuries. He lays considerable emphasis upon the late-colonial and post-colonial years; thus bringing out the continuities of these years which historians of eastern Africa have tended to overlook. Oral material from three case study areas in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania are integrally woven in with archival and newspaper sources, each reinforcing and elaborating the other.

Author Biography

Justin Willis is Senior Associate & Researcher at the Department of History, University of Durham.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. vii
Glossary	p. viii
List of Maps, Tables, Figures & Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction: Ambiguous power: Drink, drunkenness & society	p. 1
What are you drinking?: Alcohol & innovation 1850-1999	p. 21
Drink, sex & violence: The nature of power in nineteenth-century East Africa	p. 47
Wild women & violent youths	p. 50
Drinking power: The construction of authority in pre-colonial societies	p. 61
Chiefs & caravans: Alternative sources of power	p. 76
Native liquor, money & the colonial state c. 1900-60	p. 95
Selling drink 1900-60	p. 99
Native liquor, native authority: Drinking policy & practice 1900-40	p. 118
Clubs & beerhalls 1940-55	p. 141
Whisky in the club: 'Intoxicating Liquor' 1900-47	p. 160
Drink & development c.1950-90	p. 175
'Beer is best': Formal sector alcohol 1947-90	p. 181
Traditional liquor & development c. 1960-90	p. 198
'Impure spirit': Illicit distillation, health & power	p. 220
Drinking in the 1990s	p. 241
Beer wars & power drinks: State, capital & drinking well-being 1991-99	p. 243
Crises of drinking & diversification	p. 252
Appendices	p. 267
European & Asian alcohol consumption, Kenya & Uganda 1922-48
Consumption of formal sector alcohol in Kenya 1954-90
Bottled-beer production for local consumption & excise revenue from beer
Modern drinking & production: summary results of surveys
Interview details
Bibliography	p. 291
Index	p. 300
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