Changaa
ChangaaorChang'aais a traditional home-brewed spirit, popular inKenya.It is made by fermentation and distillation from grains likemillet,maizeandsorghum,and is very potent.
Regulation
[edit]After being illegal in Kenya for many years, the Kenyan government legalised the traditional home-brewed spirit in 2010, in an effort to take business away from establishments where toxic chemicals are added to the brew to make it stronger.[1]Under the new law, chang'aa must be manufactured, distributed and sold in glass bottles, and retailers must display health warning signs. Sale to individuals under age 18 is still prohibited, as is sale through automatic vending machines. Anyone making or selling adulterated chang'aa risks penalties of five million shillings, five years in jail, or both.[2]Chang'aa is usually much cheaper and stronger than other alcoholic drinks, making it the beverage of choice for many.
Production and distribution
[edit]Its production and distribution in urban slums has to some extent continued to be controlled in many cases by criminal gangs like theMungikiwho run protection cartels for illicit brewers. However, in the rest of the country production is still under traditional brewers. Illegally brewed chang'aa could be purchased for aroundUS$0.20[3]to $0.40[4]per glass.
Health concerns
[edit]The drink is sometimes adulterated by adding substances likejet fuel,embalming fluidorbattery acid,which has the effect of giving the beverage more 'kick'.[4][5]Drinkers have suffered blindness or death due tomethanolpoisoning.[3]The water used to make the drink in illegal breweries is also often below acceptable health standards and sometimes contaminated withsewage.
Origin of name
[edit]The spirit's name,Chang'aa,means literally "kill me quick."[4]
The nameChang'aawas adopted in the 1950s when Oyuga Muganda, an AP inKisumu,once narrated the story in the presence of Tom Omuga howPelele(akaWoraj) got its name asChang'aa.
Women from the Kano area of Kisumu used to ferry fresh milk in pots to sell to Kisumu residents. The colonial government had banned the sale of local liquor (Pelele) and so the women carrying milk also carriedPeleledisguised as milk.
One day a white policeman who had been tipped off about the underground trafficking ofPelelestopped the women milk sellers on the road to inspect their pots of "milk". One of the pots hadPeleleand not milk.
The policeman ordered all the pots lined on the roadside and asked "Maziwa ya nani?"
An interpreter repeated inDholuo"Ma Chag ng'a?" (meaning "whose milk is this?" ).
So the policeman charged the women with transporting and sellingChang'aa.That is allegedly how the nameChang'aacame about.
See also
[edit]
- Waragi(in Uganda)
References
[edit]- ^"Kenya moves to end ban on changaa home brew".BBC News.2010-02-10.
- ^"Chang'aa now legal but must be bottled".The Standard (Kenya).Archived fromthe originalon 22 December 2015.Retrieved2010-10-03.
- ^abHarding, Andrew (2002-09-20)."Life after dark in Nairobi's slum".BBC News.
- ^abc"African Moonshine: Kill Me Quickly".The Economist.2010-04-29.Retrieved2010-05-27.
- ^"Chang'aa - Jet fuel 'makes brew stronger'".News 24.com.April 14, 2005. Archived fromthe originalon 24 February 2012.Retrieved9 November2014.