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‘Beer Used to Belong to Older Men’: Drink and Authority Among the Nyakyusa of Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Justin Willis
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Abstract

The Nyakyusa were the subject of a classic series of ethnographies. This article suggests that these works took insufficient account of struggles over authority in the colonial period. Consequently they overstated the formalisation of chiefly power and understated the complex relationship between generational tensions and political authority in the pre-colonial period. Following discursive and practical changes in the use of alcohol, the article identifies a shift in the nature of power among the Nyakyusa over the twentieth century and develops the idea that drinking talk, and drinking practice, are central fields for the creation and recreation of the assumptions of power which underpin authority.

Résumé

Les Nyakyusa ont fait l'objet d'une série classique d'ethnographies. Cet article suggère que ces études n'ont pas tenu suffisamment compte des luttes de pouvoir au cours de la période coloniale. Elles ont par conséquent surestimé la formalisation du pouvoir des chefs et minimisé la relation complexe entre tensions générationnelles et autorité politique au cours de la période précoloniale. A la suite d'une évolution discursive et pratique de la consommation d'alcool, l'article dénote un changement dans la nature du pouvoir chez les Nyakyusa au cours du vingtième siècle et développe l'idée selon laquelle la discussion accompagnée d'une consommation d'alcool et la pratique de la consommation d'alcool sont des domaines fondamentaux de création et recréation des prises du pouvoir qui étayent l'autorité.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , August 2001 , pp. 373 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2001

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