'We Think Prohibition is a Farce': Drinking in the Alcohol Prohibited Zone of Colonial Northern Nigeria

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Periodical article

Title:	'We Think Prohibition is a Farce': Drinking in the Alcohol Prohibited Zone of Colonial Northern Nigeria
Author:	Heap, Simon
Year:	1998
Periodical:	International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:	31
Issue:	1
Pages:	23-51
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Northern Nigeria United Kingdom
Subjects:	colonialism alcoholic beverages History and Exploration Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/220883
Abstract:	In 1890 imperial paternalism pushed by metropolitan liquor prohibition groups succeeded in getting the Brussels Conference of 1890 to declare large parts of Africa, including Northern Nigeria, prohibited from importing liquor because the inhabitants were mostly Muslim and their religion prohibited the use of alcohol. This paper examines the failure of colonial policies to keep liquor out of the mouths of northerners. It argues that African ingenuity and deliberate efforts combined with colonial expediencies to thwart the prohibition. Northern Nigerians found five ways to get an alcoholic drink in the prohibited zone: by legally drinking indigenous alcohol, by obtaining colonial liquor permits, by smuggling, by substituting unusual alcoholic beverages, and by purchasing liquor made in the north itself. Notes, ref.