Alcohol consumption and the black nation

It is true that alcohol has long been a part of human society. This is the case in both African and Western societies. In the West, the biblical stories inform us that even Jesus, at one point, arranged for people to drink alcohol when he converted water into wine, much to the jubilation of the beneficiaries. It is thus comical when prophetic pastors inform their congregants that alcohol is the work of the devil.

What has been problematic, and what Europeans did, is the utilisation of alcohol as a weapon during colonial conquest. European settlers gave alcohol to traditional leaders in exchange for land. It is said that in the south in 1883, a 21-year-old German named Heinrich Vogelsang bought land from Nama Chief Joseph Fredericks. The deal included alcohol.

In the north, Ondonga King Kambonde kaMpingana is said to have sold land to the settlers for a cask of brandy in 1885.

The colonisers continued to use alcohol as a weapon of control and domination over the black nation. In South Africa, in the Western Cape, the colonisers introduced a system that was known as the "dop system", whereby employers paid their labourers with cheap wine.

The colonisers saw nothing wrong with this system.

In fact, the system was socially accepted.

It is for this reason that Apartheid rugby hero, and Afrikaner farmer, Jan Boland Coetzee, is said to have remarked in the 1980s that "coloured labourers were like children [...] didn't know what was good for them, [and] only wanted their daily dop (tot) of wine."

Although now illegal in independent South Africa, the impact of the dop system, which persisted over many years, is still felt, particularly among the Khoisan communities in the Western Cape.

The alcohol situation among black Africans worsened with freedom and independence. Over the years, studies have found that sub-Saharan Africa not only displays high proportions of heavy episodic drinkers, but it also has weak alcohol policies. As a result, the region has been a target for market expansion by global alcohol producers. It is as if alcohol is the second religion.

How else would one explain that when Qatar banned the sale of alcohol at stadiums, it was the Africans, particularly those who were not going to Qatar, who were among the loudest noisemakers on social media platforms. The editor of this newspaper shared a video that had been circulating on social media pages showing spectators circumventing rules by smuggling alcohol into stadiums.

That we are an alcoholic nation is not a point of debate. From State House to the village, excessive alcohol consumption is the order of the day. We all recall a video of President Hage Geingob, in which he accidentally confessed to being a consumer of alcohol. Upon realising what he had said, he quickly added a disclaimer: "Just a little bit." In terms of heavy alcohol consumption, our country is ranked among the top consumers globally.

As we head into the festive season, the discussions in the boardrooms of Namibia Breweries and Distell Namibia do not revolve around Bible verses befitting Christmas and other Christian activities. Instead, they are concerned about how to meet the heavy demand for alcohol and the profits thereafter.

Breweries' adverts, such as Three-Fir-Fifty - three beers for only 50 dollars – are probably more widely read than job vacancy ads.

On a daily basis, we wake up to videos of drunkards falling or urinating on themselves publicly. Our region, Zambezi, was once ranked the highest in terms of beer consumption.

Namibian Breweries has already exceeded selling more than 1 million hectolitres of beer in a year.

Despite making millions in profits from alcohol, there are no big social investment initiatives.

There are no schools, hospitals or football stadiums exclusively built by Namibia Breweries in Namibia. Most of the sponsorship has been around social events that promote alcohol consumption. There is no single rehabilitation centre built and run by those benefitting from the alcohol situation.

When the words of Jan Boland Coetzee, as quoted in this column, are extrapolated from coloureds to the black nation in Namibia, regardless of the pain they inflict, the state of affairs may be explained.

Muthoni waKongola is a native of Kongola in the Zambezi Region primarily concerned with analysing society and offering ideas for a better Namibia. She is reachable at [email protected] or @wakongola on Twitter.