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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Green tea in the Sahel: the social history of an itinerant consumer good
Authors:Diawara, MamadouISNI
Röschenthaler, UteISNI
Year:2012
Periodical:Canadian Journal of African Studies (ISSN 0008-3968)
Volume:46
Issue:1
Pages:39-64
Language:English
Geographic term:Sahel
Subjects:tea
social history
mercantile history
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2012.659578
Abstract:Since the liberalization of the global market in the 1990s, the amount of green tea imported from China to the Sahel has dramatically increased. This article traces some of the stages in the development of green tea from its introduction in the early nineteenth century by Moorish traders from Morocco to a mass consumer good in the Sahel and the adjoint savannah regions. Having started as a beverage with medicinal and vitalizing properties, it was adopted by the aristocratic urban elite in Sahelian trading towns, and much later via the pastoralists by the general population, while spreading out further south. The gradual democratization of green tea is related to the changing norms of tea consumption, of family authority, and to different stages in the packaging, naming and presentation of tea, together with sugar. Green tea has become the most popular drink in cities such as Bamako, where it remains strongly associated with its Moorish introduction. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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