Author(s) :

Amos Owem OMONIGHO (PhD).

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

This paper examined the tenacity of local gin (ogogoro) production in the Niger Delta region following the British prohibition of its production and distribution in colonial Nigeria. The emergence of the home-made gin as a competitor to imported alcohol generally referred to as “trade spirits” primarily informed colonial attempts to outlaw its production and distribution through a series of liquor laws. The paper employed the historical research method by using primary and secondary sources. Oral interviews were conducted with some local gin producers and inhabitants of the area. Extant archival materials were obtained at the National Archives, Ibadan. The secondary sources consisted of relevant literature on colonialism and local gin production in the Niger Delta, government publications, and reports of independent bodies, newspapers and internet materials. All the sources were critically examined and interpreted. This paper argued that the opposition of colonial authorities against the production, sales, and consumption of native gin in the Niger Delta was primarily informed by colonial concern about the threat posed by the indigenous gin to colonial revenue. It further examined various strategies employed by the local distillers that rendered efforts ineffectual in dealing with the production and distribution of local alcohol especially in the rural areas of the region. The paper concluded that local cultural and economic nationalism, which had been built around the homemade gin on account of its age-long religious and sociocultural uses and attachment to it by the people, made its production and consumption thrive unabated despite colonial onslaught against it. Keywords: Colonialism, Indigenous, Alcohol, Niger Delta, Coping strategies

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