Competing Practices of Drinking and Power: Alcoholic "Hegemonism" in Southern Ethiopia

Competing Practices ofDrinking and Power: Alcoholic "Hegemonism" in Southern Ethiopia Jon Abbink African Studies Center, University ofLeiden Introduction When I was about to descend to the Surma lowlands in southern Ethiopia some years ago, I was warnedby the people in the lasthighland village where I stayed: "What? Why do you want to go to these people? They are difficult and violent, and especially when they drink beer the whole day. You will have no food, no bed, nothing. And are you going to drink that beer of them?" I had no good answer then, but I was struck by their emphasizing point of the Surma beer so strongly. Like violence, alcohol is looked upon as inherently 'problematic': as phenomena ofbehavior associated with, e.g., addiction, lack of self-control , insolence, unpredictability. But, remarkably, it is often directed by people at some other group, whom they do not like or know well. Alcohol, with its apparent potential for generating trouble, is used as a theme to belittle, patronize and differentiate people, also in Ethiopia in the context of divergent ethnocultural traditions and exposure to state narratives of 'civilization' and governance. Inhistorical studies ofcolonial societies in Africa, much attentionhas beenpaid to the 'politics ofalcohol' as a strategy ofcontrol and as an ideological means of group distinction and hierarchy (cf. Akyeampong 1996, Crush & Ambler 1992, Diduk 1993, Partanen 1986, Siiskonen®Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 4, No. 3 (New Series) 1997, pp. 7-22 8 Jon Abhink 1994). Such politics had, of course, a built-in ambivalent streak: a moral rejection of the local population's alcohol use by (colonial) elites, who especially rejected the indigenous kinds of beer and spirits, and at the same time showing a laissez-faire attitude towards use and abuse, because alcohol (ab)use also allowed those elites to further ground their hegemony in a civilizing narrative and to expand their economic hold on people (e.g., through the import of new kinds). Recent studies have also shown the mutual relation between changing political and economic conditions and ideas and attitudes about indigenous beer and its cultural referents (Colson & Scudder 1988; Hutchinson 1996:84, 162, 163, 231). Hence, alongside economic mechanisms, we simultaneously see ideological ones at work. Also, in this article one might start by saying that 'alcohol' is always embedded in relations of valuation: economic but, more important, also political and moral-cultural. Viewed in this light, there is no such thing as a 'history of alcohol in Africa': its existence and use cannot be separated, not even analytically, from its social conditions and constructions. This article will focus on the case of the Surma in southern Ethiopia, a group oflowland agro-pastoralists, but the problems and dilemmas of changing alcohol use and its valuation are in many respects similar for groups in other parts of Ethiopia and East Africa (for one example, see Rekdal 1996). While Ethiopia is interesting in that there is no direct colonial legacy (and corresponding 'alcohol policy') withwhich people have had to deal, also here there are oppositions between several kinds of groups, among them the one between culturally dominant Christian highlanders1 and the local, indigenous groups ofvarious ethnic backgrounds. Southwest Ethiopia was only included in the Ethiopian empire in the late 19th century and has, in political and economic terms remained quite marginal, though not isolated, since. The many setüers from the North brought (Ethiopian Orthodox) Christianity, state administration, new products and goods, and a different culture. They also founded new villages and small towns. They considered themselves to be culturally superior to the indigenous groups, amongst whom are the Surma, Me'en (both Nilosaharan Surmic-speaking), Dizi and Bench (Omotic-speaking) peoples. This pattern of cultural ranking did not prohibit all kinds of contacts between groups—they maintained economic, social and sexual, Compering Practices ofDrinking and Power 9 and marital relations and partly assimilated—but still, it was maintained until this day. It has been well described in the literature, and historical details will not be elaborated here. What is relevant to note, however, is that this ranking and valuation were also reflected in cultural representations around drinking. Alcohol could thus become emblematic of group distance...