Alcohol in Africa: Mixing business, pleasure and politics

This project involves an edited collection of 14 case study and overview chapters (by the editor) that document historically the changing nature of alcohol usage in Africa. Over the last twenty years, rapid income differentiation and economic marginalization have spurred production and consumption of alcohol. In many localities, an expanding supply of alcohol has led to drinking patterns that impinge on general social welfare. The widespread incidence of these circumstances coincides with the continent-wide implementation of structural adjustment and economic liberalization policies. Alcohol's status as a symbol of the staff of life with power-affirming functions in the domain of male elders has gradually given way to a communal leisure pastime. Now, alcohol is providing a valuable economic fuel and social lubricant during hard times. Tensions have surfaced between the maximization of relaxation and pleasure individually experienced and the sociability of the community.