'One beer, one goal, one nation, one soul': South African breweries, heritage, masculinity and nationalism 1960-1999

Past and Present

Volumn 188, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 163-194

  Mager, Anne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33750093265     PISSN: 00312746     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pastj/gti021     Document Type: Article

References (150)

1. Robert Ross, A Concise History of South Africa (Cambridge, 1999), 158.
2. Jonathan Crush and Charles Ambler (eds.), Liquor and Labor in Southern Africa (Athens, Ohio, 1992), editors' 'Introduction'
3. Paul la Hause, 'Drinking in a Cage: The Durban System and the 1929 Riots', Africa Perspective, xx (1982)
4. Paul la Hause, 'Drink and Cultural Innovation in Durban: The Origins of the Beerhall in South Africa, 1902-1916',
5. and Helen Bradford, '"We Women Will Show Them": Beer Protests in the Natal Countryside, 1929', both in Crush and Ambler (eds.), Liquor and Labor.
6. See also fictional accounts: The Drum Decade: Stories from the 1950s, comp. and ed. Michael Chapman (Pietermaritzburg, 1980)
7. Ezekiel Mphahlele, Down Second Avenue (London, 1959)
8. Peter Abrahams, Tell Freedom (1954; Boston, 1981)
9. Bloke Modisane, Blame Me on History (1963; Cape Town, 1986)
10. Ellen Kuzwayo, Call Me Woman (Johannesburg, 1985)
11. The World of Nat Nakasa, 2nd edn, comp. and ed. Essop Patel (Johannesburg, 1995).
12. Charles van Onselen, 'Randlords and Rotgut, 1886-1903', in his Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914, 2 vols. (London, 1982), i
13. Christian Myles Rogerson, 'The Survival of the Informal Sector: The Shebeens of Black Johannesburg', GeoJournal, xii, 1 (1986).
14. 'Clear' beer was a euphemism for 'European' beer, visibly distinguished from opaque sorghum beer.
15. Nicoli Nattrass, 'Controversies about Capitalism and Apartheid in South Africa', Jl Southern African Studies, xvii, 4 (Dec. 1991)
16. Nancy Clark, 'The Limits of Industrialisation under Apartheid', in Philip Bonner, Peter Delius and Deborah Posel (eds.), Apartheid's Genesis, 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993)
17. Merle Lipton, Capitalism and Apartheid: South Africa, 1910-1986 (Aldershot, 1985)
18. Frederick A. Johnstone, 'White Prosperity and White Supremacy in South Africa Today', African Affairs, lxix (1970)
19. Martin Legassick, 'South Africa: Forced Labour, Industrialisation and Racial Differentiation', in Richard Harris (ed.), The Political Economy of Africa (Boston, 1973).
20. Anne Mager, 'The First Decade of "European Beer" in Apartheid South Africa: The State, the Brewers and the Drinking Public, 1962-1972', Jl African Hist. (Oct. 1999), 380-2.
21. Michael Fridjhon and Andy Murray, Conspiracy of Giants: The South African Liquor Industry (Johannesburg, 1986)
22. 'Last Round', Financial Mail, 16 Nov. 1979, 691.
23. This article does not examine the SAB's non-beverage acquisitions, a diversification largely consequent on the restrictions placed on the liquor market.
24. Merle Lipton, 'The Debate about South Africa: Neo-Marxists and Neo-Liberals', African Affairs, lxxvi (1977)
25. Dan O'Meara, Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1934-48 (Cambridge, 1983).
26. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 'A Social History of the Bagel', Presentation at Cox Hall, Emory University, Atlanta, 13 Feb. 2003.
27. Interview, Senior Marketing Manager, B, Kenton-on-Sea, 28 Apr. 2000. This and all subsequently cited interviews were conducted and transcribed by the author.
28. Interview, Senior Marketing Manager, B. Louis Luyt, an Afrikaner entrepreneur who had made his money selling fertilizer to farmers, established Intercontinental Breweries in the 1970s in competition with the SAB (perceived as English capitalists): See Fridjhon and Murray, Conspiracy of Giants, 183-4.
29. See Naomi Klein, No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (New York, 2000), 21.
30. Gregory John Ashworth, 'From History to Heritage - from Heritage to Identity: In Search of Concepts and Models', in G. J. Ashworth and P. J. Larkham (eds.), Building a New Heritage: Tourism, Culture and Identity (London, 1994), 16.
31. Rolande Barthes, 'The Rhetoric of the Image', in his Image, Music, Text, trans. Stephen Heath (London, 1977)
32. Gillian Dyer, Advertising as Communication (London, 1988), 114-27.
33. Dyer, Advertising as Communication, 123
34. Robert Goldman, Reading Ads Socially (London, 1992), 19, 104
35. Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising (London, 1978), 177.
36. Celia Lury, Consumer Culture (New Brunswick, 1996), 53
37. Goldman, Reading Ads Socially, 104.
38. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1991), 6, for a discussion of the style in which communities are imagined.
39. See, for example, Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York, 1994), ch. 4.
40. Interview Senior Marketing Manager, B.
41. Interview, Marketing Executive, A, SAB Beer Division, Sandton, 12 July 2000.
42. Interview, Marketing Executive, A. In practice, human resource development did not lag behind. The SAB employed more skilled black workers than most other companies, and implemented 'scientific management' and personnel development programmes.
43. SAB Archives, Johannesburg: Packaging Improvement Programme, Notes for Presentation, 7 Jan. 1966.
44. Anton Rupert, doyen of Afrikaner capital, had bought Intercontinental Breweries in an attempt to bail out fellow Afrikaner Louis Luyt: See Fridjhon and Murray, Conspiracy of Giants, 183-4.
45. Interview, Marketing Executive, A.
46. Goldman, Reading Ads Socially, 39.
47. Interview, Marketing Executive, A.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid.
53. Data (the SAB's in-house magazine), Sept. 1972
54. Insight (Institute of Marketing Management, Johannesburg), Nov. 1978, 20.
55. Rafe Howard, 'Beer Advertising: Why So Stale and Flat', Insight, Nov. 1978, 20.
56. See Varda Burstyn, The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport (Toronto, 1999), 148.
57. Peter Savory, letter to Insight, Jan. 1979, 12.
58. Interview, Marketing Executive, A.
59. 'Remember the Beer Campaign', Data, Dec. 1969; June 1972.
60. See Goldman, Reading Ads Socially, 24, for the 'active agency' of the object of desire.
61. Data, June 1967.
62. Ibid.
63. Data, Dec. 1968.
64. Ibid.
65. Data, Sept. 1967.
66. Ibid.
67. SAB Archives: Annual reports, year ending Mar. 1969 to year ending Mar. 1979.
68. Interview, Senior Marketing Manager, B.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Timothy Burke, Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe (Durham, NC, and London, 1996), 129, 101.
72. Interview, Senior Marketing Manager, B.
73. See Shebeens Take a Bow! A Celebration of South Africa's Shebeen Lifestyle, comp. and ed. Jim Bailey and Adam Seftel (Johannesburg, 1994).
74. Sorghum beer production remained a state monopoly, responsible for 46.7 per cent of market share and non-taxable earnings of R70 million compared with R13 million earnings from clear beer in 1984: See Fridjhon and Murray, Conspiracy of Giants, 5, 195.
75. Interview, Marketing Manager, Eastern Cape, C, Knysna, 29 Apr. 2000.
76. See Mager, 'First Decade of "European Beer" in Apartheid South Africa';
77. la Hause, 'Drink and Cultural Innovation in Durban', 98-105.
78. Interviews, Marketing Manager, Eastern Cape, C; Senior Marketing Manager, B.
79. S. M. Gatley and J. E. Bayley, 'A Report on a Research Project on Patterns of Use and Attitudes towards the Use and Misuse of Alcohol, Dagga, Mandrax, and Inhalants in the Black Community of New Brighton, Port Elizabeth' (unpubd report), Vista University and South African National Council on Alcohol Abuse (SANCA), Port Elizabeth, Nov. 1987, 25.
80. Nick Green and Reg Lascaris, Communication in the Third World: Seizing Advertising Opportunities in the 1990s (Cape Town, 1990), 65.
81. Douglas Booth, The Race Game: Sport and Politics in South Africa (London, 1998)
82. John Nauright and David Black, '"Hitting Them Where It Hurts": Springbok-All Black Rugby, Masculine National Identity and Counter-Hegemonic Struggle, 1959-1992', in John Nauright and Timothy J. L. Chandler (eds.), Making Men: Rugby and Masculine Identity (London, 1996).
83. Interview, Senior Marketing Manager, B.
84. Financial Mail, 21 Aug. 1981, 874
85. SAB Archives: Annual report, year ending Mar. 1981.
86. Lee Rocha-Silva, 'Drinking Practices, Drinking-Related Attitudes and Public Impressions of Services for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Urban South Africa' (unpubd report), Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 1989, table 4.
87. Green and Lascaris, Communication in the Third World, 28.
88. SANCA reported that liquor advertising expenditure increased from R32.8 million in 1984 to R37.8 million in 1985, an increase of 15.25 per cent: SANCA Information Bulletin, c. 1986.
89. Interview, Marketing Executive, A.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid.
92. Sowetan, 10 Dec. 1987.
93. Eric Rosenthall, Tankards and Tradition (Cape Town, 1961), 109-10.
94. Charles Glass is shown demonstrating how beer appeals to man's five senses in Sowetan, 15 Oct. 1987, 13.
95. See Crush and Ambler (eds.), Liquor and Labor, editors' 'Introduction'.
96. Interview, SAB 'Ombudsperson', Johannesburg, 12 July 2000.
97. Interview, Senior Marketing Manager, B.
98. Green and Lascaris, Communication in the Third World, 81-2.
99. Julian Stallabras, Gargantua: Manufactured Mass Culture (London, 1996), 66.
100. For the Anders Ohlsson advertisement, see Sowetan, 6 Dec. 1985, 3.
101. Ibid., 24 Nov. 1986, 20-1 (half-page advertisement across two pages).
102. Ibid., 18 Dec. 1986, 16-17 (half-page advertisement across two pages).
103. Ibid., 4 Nov. 1988; 11 Nov. 1988; 18 Nov. 1988.
104. See Kobena Mercer, 'Imagine All the People: Constructing Community Culturally', in Andrew Patrizio and Richard Hylton (eds.), Imagined Communities: Exhibition Catalogue, Pumphouse Gallery, Wandsworth (London, 1995), 12, for a discussion of how culture shapes the imagining of communities.
105. Ogilvy and Mather (later, Ogilvy South Africa), Advertising and Marketing Agency, Johannesburg, Amstel History Reel, 2000.
106. Interview, Marketing Executive, A.
107. Ibid.
108. Ogilvy and Mather, Amstel History Reel, 2000.
109. Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7.
110. Castle lager introduced the Castle Cup in 1959, a major football and soccer sponsorship: See 'It's a Goal!' Fifty Years of Sweat, Tears, and Drama in Black Soccer, comp. George Andries Lesitsi Thabe, with M. Mutloatse (Johannesburg, 1983), 101-4.
111. Ogilvy and Mather, Castle Lager History Reel, 2000. 'Bafana Bafana' is the name of the South African national football team. It is a loose translation of the Xhosa abafana (the big boys).
112. Ogilvy and Mather, Castle Lager Reel 4, 2000. 'Laduma!' is a colloquial expression derived from the Xhosa verb duma (to make a big noise), implying a shout of triumph (when a football player scores a goal).
113. Amaboko-boko is a colloquial expression combining a Xhosa plural noun prefix with the Afrikaans bok (deer).
114. Burstyn, Rites of Men, 26, 32.
115. Ogilvy and Mather, Castle Lager History Reel, 2000.
116. Interview, Marketing Executive, A.
117. Alistair Hewitt, SAB Castle Milk Stout Brand Manager, in The Making of Ndlanu (Incha Film Productions, 1996).
118. Dimape Seremanye, Strategic Director of HerdBuoys, ibid.
119. Ben Horowitz of Salamander, ibid.
120. Kingsley Potter, SAB Castle Milk Stout Brand Manager, ibid.
121. Jackie, Soweto Theatre Choreographer, ibid.
122. Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (London, 1993), 102.
123. SAB Centenary Centre (now the World of Beer), Redds television commercial, July 2000.
124. Interview, J.S., Designer of Castle lager advertisements, Johannesburg, 9 July 2000.
125. Green and Lascaris, Communication in the Third World, 80.
126. Ibid.
127. Mary Louise Roberts, 'Review Essay: Gender, Consumption and Commodity Culture', Amer. Hist. Rev., ciii (1998).
128. Green and Lascaris, Communication in the Third World, 151.
129. Ibid.
130. Interview, J.S.
131. Ibid.
132. Ibid.
133. Lury, Consumer Culture, 12.
134. Marcia Klein, 'Alcohol and Advertising Adds Froth to the Debate', Business Day, 30 Apr. 1991
135. see also Charles D. H. Parry and Anna L. Bennetts, Alcohol Policy and Public Health in South Africa (Cape Town, 1998).
136. See Chris van der Burgh, 'Some Guidelines for Combating the Advertising/ Marketing Strategies of the Alcohol Industry in Black Communities', Paper for Committee Workshop, SANCA, Johannesburg, 1 Oct. 1988, 5
137. Resolution Taken on Liquor Advertising by the Medical Association of South Africa, 'Minutes of Meeting of the Federal Council of the Medical Association of South Africa', 11-13 May 1977, suppl. to S. A. Medical Jl, 17 Sept. 1977, 22-3
138. Parliament of South Africa, House of Assembly Debates, Administration: House of Delegates, C. N. Moodliar, 18 Apr. 1989, p. 5670
139. Parry and Bennetts, Alcohol Policy and Public Health in South Africa, 143-6.
140. Stallabras, Gargantua, 176.
141. Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised edn (London, 1983), 78.
142. Lury, Consumer Culture, 100
143. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (Berkeley, 1998), 262.
144. Roberts paraphrasing Jennifer Jones, in 'Gender, Consumption and Commodity Culture', 823.
145. Unemployment in South Africa in 1995 was 29.3 per cent according to the 1995 October household survey: Republic of South Africa, Central Statistics, Statistics in Brief (Pretoria, 1997), fig. 10.2.
146. Maureen Isaacson, 'Cronin the Librarian Grapples with History and Transition', Sunday Independent, 13 July 1997.
147. Eve Bertelsen, 'Ads and Amnesia: Black Advertising in the New South Africa', in Sarah Nuttal and Carli Coetzee (eds.), Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa (Oxford and Cape Town, 1998), 225.
148. Klein, 'Alcohol and Advertising Adds Froth to the Debate'.
149. Interview, J.S.
150. Jean Baudrillard, Fatal Strategies, ed. Jim Fleming, trans. Philip Beitchman and W. G. J. Niesluchowski (New York, 1990), 74.