TIMESONLINE: Since the imposition of Islamic law 25 years ago, having a cool beer in Sudan meant running the risk of 40 lashes. Today SAB Miller is preparing to open a brewery in the south of the country.
The company, one of the largest brewers in the world, plans to create a new beer and is investing £25 million in the plant, in Juba, the capital of south Sudan, which is governed by mainly Christian former rebels.
“We will not only be consuming but producing alcohol,” Samson Kwaje, the Agriculture Minister of south Sudan, said at the launch.
Tension is running high between north and south over disputed oilfields, with both sides apparently arming for war. To the southern politicians, who have an eye on full independence, the new beer is a statement of identity as much as a thirst-quencher.
When the Government in Khartoum introduced Sharia in 1983, alcohol was banned throughout the country. The imposition of Islamic law sparked an uprising in the south, which turned into a 20-year civil war, pitting the Christian rebels against northern Muslims.
In a peace deal concluded in 2005, the rebels won the right to a semi-autonomous secular government. Freed from the shackles of Khartoum's Islamic regime, beer lovers were the first to notice a peace dividend.
Entrepreneurs on bicycles would ride the rutted roads to Uganda, bringing back as many crates of alcohol as they could carry. Today restaurants in Juba offer wines, beers and spirits. >>> Rob Crilly in Nairobi | December 15, 2008
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