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The King of Drinks
Schnapps Gin from Modernity to Tradition
Series: - African Social Studies Series, Volume: 18
Author:
Imported schnapps gin has a remarkable history in West Africa. Gin was imported in great quantities between 1880 and World War I, when its consumption showed access to the modern, international world. Subsequently schnapps was transformed into a good that signified traditional, local culture. Today, imported schnapps has high status because of its importance for African ritual and as symbol of the status of chiefs and elders, but actual consumption is limited. This book explores this unexpected trajectory of commoditisation to investigate how imported goods acquire specific local meanings. This analysis of consumption and marketing of gin contributes to our understanding of patterns of consumption, rejection and appropriation within processes of identity formation, elite formation, and the redefinition of community in colonial and postcolonial West Africa.
Dmitri van den Bersselaar, Ph.D. (1998), Leiden University, is Lecturer in African History at the University of Liverpool. He has published on the social and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century Ghana and Nigeria.
"This book is both provocative and subversive. The evidence that van den Bersselaar provides for his central argumentâthat âimported goods are likely to be incorporated into African consumptive patterns in ways that make sense in the context of existing yet continually changing African world views, .....â â has important implications not only for our understanding of modern West African history but for broader scholarship on consumption and commodities as well. Better yet, itâs a pleasure to read." - Charles Ambler, in: African Studies Review 2008
"Like many commodity histories, van den Bersselaarâs book successfully combines aspects of economic, political and social history with, in this case, excursions into the history of trade law and advertising" - Insa Nolte, in: Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 23, No 2 (Spring, 2009)
"Like many commodity histories, van den Bersselaarâs book successfully combines aspects of economic, political and social history with, in this case, excursions into the history of trade law and advertising" - Insa Nolte, in: Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 23, No 2 (Spring, 2009)
Chapter 1. Introduction: foreign imports, local meanings
Chapter 2. The Rise of Gin
Chapter 3. Becoming the King of Drinks
Chapter 4. âBird ginâ and âmoney ginâ: brands and marketing
Chapter 5. Poison or medicine? Changing perceptions of Dutch gin
Chapter 6. âYour very good health!â Gin for an independent West Africa
Chapter 7. Schnapps gin from modernity to tradition
Chapter 8. Bibliography
Index
Chapter 2. The Rise of Gin
Chapter 3. Becoming the King of Drinks
Chapter 4. âBird ginâ and âmoney ginâ: brands and marketing
Chapter 5. Poison or medicine? Changing perceptions of Dutch gin
Chapter 6. âYour very good health!â Gin for an independent West Africa
Chapter 7. Schnapps gin from modernity to tradition
Chapter 8. Bibliography
Index
Academic and public libraries; specialists and students in the history of consumption and marketing, West African social and cultural history, and alcohol studies; educated laymen interested in Dutch jenever.