" We can no longer tolerate our father's pay-packets being emptied on drink" - Soweto Students' Representative Council during the Soweto Uprising in 1976.
Liquor has long been at the centre of conflicts in South Africa. Authorities have tried to control the drinking of alcohol and to profit from it. Fierce black resistance to these attempts has often been rooted in struggles over low wages and the harsh conditions of urban life. Written in 1989, Paul la Hausse's book traces this history.