Shebeens, alcohol and nation-building in Zimbabwe, 1980–1989

Abstract

ABSTRACT In March 1981, the newly elected Zimbabwe government announced that as of May of that year shebeens were required to cease their operations. The announcement ignited a debate not only about the place of alcohol and shebeens in the newly independent “socialist” state, but also about what independence meant, and the kind of state different sections of the population wanted to fashion henceforth. Most scholars who have written about the 1980s emphasize the role of political elites in state-making. This focus on elites obscures the importance of the ordinary people in contesting state power. Interviews with contemporaries and an examination of the debate that followed the government crackdown on shebeens in cities reveal not only that the elites were in no position to impose their project from above but also that the state that emerged in the 1980s was a result of negotiation and compromise.