Drinking for Development: Transformation of the Beer Hall System in Late Colonial Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
A common feature of colonial towns in Africa was the 'beer hall', serving traditional sorghum beer under municipal monopoly to the African labour force. This system was designed with a dual purpose - to fund rudimentary welfare and housing services for workers whilst consolidating control of drinkin...
| Published in: | Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History Vol. 51; no. 6; pp. 1170 - 1200 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Dec2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=174543093&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 174543093 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 03086534 RIB jtl: Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History issn: 03086534 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Dec2023 vid: 51 iid: 6 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 174543093 10.1080/03086534.2023.2196835 ppf: 1170 ppct: 30 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 3.9MB tig: atl: Drinking for Development: Transformation of the Beer Hall System in Late Colonial Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. aug: au: Hutton, Maurice affil: University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK su: Beer Anti-imperialist movements Home ownership Public welfare Community gardens Coffee drinking Home schooling Home environment Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) Africa sug: subj: Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) Africa Beer Anti-imperialist movements Home ownership Public welfare Community gardens Coffee drinking Home schooling Home environment keyword: Beer gardens Bulawayo colonial Africa municipal beer monopoly urban development ab: A common feature of colonial towns in Africa was the 'beer hall', serving traditional sorghum beer under municipal monopoly to the African labour force. This system was designed with a dual purpose - to fund rudimentary welfare and housing services for workers whilst consolidating control of drinking and sociality. But it was oppressive, and therefore lacked legitimacy; beer halls became targets of anti-colonial struggle and faced stiff competition from illicit brewers and drinking dens. Little is known about how colonial authorities considered and addressed these problems. This article shows how authorities in late colonial Bulawayo - in the spirit of postwar developmentalism - attempted to make their municipal liquor enterprise more legitimate, by building a multitude of landscaped community beer gardens serving good quality sorghum beer, and hailing the African welfare, education, recreation and home ownership schemes built from the considerable profits. Notwithstanding this attempt to associate municipal drinking with respectable sociality and socio-cultural development, the Council received (and strenuously rebutted) sustained criticism from Africans and Europeans alike for its heavy promotion of alcohol, which undermined its moral authority as the arbiter of post-war development. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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