akpeteshie (Ga: “something hidden”) is a home- distilled liquor that has become common throughout West and Central Africa’s coastal zone since the 1930s. See home distilling. The Ga term akpeteshie is specific to southern Ghana; other names include: “local gin,” kelewele, sodabi, ogogoro, kai kai, and mongorokom. See ogogoro. Most names refer either to the drink’s history as an illegal product or to its strength. Akpeteshie is single-distilled from fermented palm juice or sugar cane using improvised stills made from metal barrels and copper pipes. The finished drink is a strong liquor of varying strength (between 30 percent and 50 percent ABV), which is poured into unlabeled and recycled bottles for storage and sale. Akpeteshie tastes rough and has a local reputation for being potentially harmful. It is usually distilled by farmers for whom it offers extra income and consumed by the poor, wage laborers, farmers, and fishermen. Distillation first occurred during the 1910s in small quantities. The colonial governments of the time relied heavily on import taxes from foreign alcohol and thus declared akpeteshie illegal. There is little evidence of its production during the 1920s when African crops fetched good prices on the world market and farmers could afford imported liquor. Illegal akpeteshie distillation spread rapidly during the 1930s global recession. It was a symbol of resistance against colonialism during decolonization. It has remained a symbol of popular culture and of protest to governments in West Africa.
Central and East Africa and West Africa.Akyeampong, Emmanuel. “What’s in a Drink? Class Struggle, Popular Culture and the Politics of Akpeteshie (Local Gin) in Ghana, 1930–67.” Journal of African History 37 (1996): 215–236.
Korieh, Chima J. “Alcohol and Empire: ‘Illicit’ Gin Prohibition and Control in Colonial Eastern Nigeria.” African Economic History 31 (2003): 111–134.
Leis, Philip E. “Palm Oil, Illicit Gin, and the Moral Order of the Ijaw.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 66, no. 4, pt. 1 (1964): 828–838.
By: Dmitri van den Bersselaar