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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Indigenous beer in southern Africa: functions and fluctuations
Author:McAllister, P.A.ISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:African Studies
Volume:52
Issue:1
Pages:71-88
Language:English
Geographic terms:Southern Africa
South Africa
Subjects:beer
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00020189308707768
Abstract:Beer is universally made among southern Bantu and probably in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, as the ethnographic record indicates. In the first part of this article the historical and contemporary use of beer among southern Bantu-speakers is surveyed, with occasional reference to people living further north in order to indicate that the data presented here represent only part of a much more widespread pattern. The second part deals with fluctuations in the availability and use of beer among Xhosa-speakers (or 'Cape Nguni') in South Africa over a period of approximately 150 years (c. 1800 to c. 1950) and reasons for these fluctuations. What emerges in both parts of the paper is that beer drinking cannot be regarded merely as an African 'custom' or 'tradition'. Instead (or in addition) it is clear that fluctuations in the manufacture and use of beer are linked to the strategies used by people to react to, or come to terms with, circumstances beyond their control, such as climatic or political circumstances. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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