Heinrich’s Chibuku Breweries and the Informalization of the African Beer Industry in Salisbury, Rhodesia, 1962–1979

Abstract

The article focuses on the informalization of the African beer industry in Salisbury, Rhodesia, from the early 1960s to 1979. For a long time, scholars have associated the informalization of the African beer industry with the activities of small-scale operators (shebeen queens and kings). True, African small-scale operators dominated the African informal beer industry, as several scholars have shown. However, this focus on the activities of small-scale beer sellers overlooks the role played by large companies in the development of the informal beer sector. In Rhodesia, Heinrich’s Chibuku Breweries Limited played a critical role in the informalization of the African beer industry by, among other factors, disregarding aspects of the African Beer Act and taking advantage of the loopholes in the Act. Through these means, it was able to penetrate the Salisbury market, a monopoly area of the rival Liquor Undertaking Department of the Salisbury City Council.