Northwestern Tanzania on a Single Shilling: Sociality, Embodiment, Valuation

Abstract

The process of fermenting banana juice and ground millet into banana beer is an elaborate craft, practiced and appreciated by Haya men. As is the case in many African communities where the plenitude and desirability of beer is intimately connected with, if not indistinguishable from, the establishment and vigor of sociality itself, Haya brewers and drinkers are scrupulously attentive to the details of this often lengthy procedure (Carlson 1989; Karp 1980; Taylor 1991 ).' Many told me of their concern that jealous neighbors or sorcerers (often one and the same in Haya neighborhoods) would spoil their efforts by pouring kerosene into the frothy mixture during the night. But Haya evaluations of the fine points of the brewing process are by no means limited to anxious attempts to safeguard their valuable libations; there is, in fact, what can best be described as an aesthetic of beer production, and it is the demands of this aesthetic that dictate careful and precise technique. Haya brewers say that it takes three days to prepare olubisi (fresh) banana beer from the juice of special beer bananas fermented with ground, often roasted millet.2 The beer is stored in the dugout canoe (obwato) in which the banana juices are first extracted, and must rest overnight and then the entire next day (the second day) before being ready to serve on the following morning (the third day). Over the course of these days and nights, samples from the developing mixture are frequently tasted to scrutinize and savor the brew. It is especially important to test the beer on the second day, when the millet has begun to draw the sugars out of the banana juice but has not yet fully converted them into alcohol. This heady, oversweet concoction, having rested for one full day after being squeezed, is called omulala (the sleeper) and is highly prized drink in its own right. One man even described well-made omulala as a gift for king. But omulala is not only enjoyed for its own sake, since it is taken as critical index