Breweries, Politics and Identity
The History Behind Namibia’s Beer
Tycho van der Hoog
Basler Afrika Bibliographien 2019
ISBN Print 9783906927121
Ca.130 p., paperback, four colour laminated, maps, illustrations
Namibian beer is celebrated as an inextricable part of Namibian nationalism, both within domestic borders and across global markets. But for decades on end, the same brew was not available to the black population as a conse-quence of colonial politics. This book aims to explain how a European style beer has been transformed from an icon of white settlers into a symbol of the independent Namibian nation. The unusual focus on beer offers valuable insight into the role of companies in identity formation and thus highlights an understudied aspect of Namibian history, namely business–state relations.
Tycho van der Hoog is a researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden, an interfaculty institute of Leiden University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history (2014), a bachelor’s degree in political science (2014), a research master’s degree in African Studies (2016) and a master’s degree in History (2017) from Leiden University. He has conducted fieldwork in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.
