As I watched the fourth episode of the first season of Vice's Fringe, an overwhelming feeling of anguish took over my heart and stopped my brain from thinking. I accepted the outburst of commiseration as if I was part of that community my eyes could see dragging on senseless behaviour amidst the worse type of poverty that there is - the impossibility of dreaming.
Perhaps this initial paragraph will not make much sense if you just landed on this post without watching the 35-ish minute documentary on the wave of alcoholism that affects Uganda (capital of alcoholism in Africa; and apparently since 2011 figures have only gotten worse). This African country, as any other African country victim of irresponsible and selfish colonisation in the past, is still trying to find what it is to live freedom that was never returned in healthy shape. It's a bit like South America after Bolivar dreamt and prompted the country to fight for their own freedom... there is sickness in the eugenics of the revolutionary soul that results in the syndrome of inadequate deliverance when time, opportunity and comprehension are not exactly synchronised in the clock of our human nature.
Now going back to this documentary where the Ugandans' addiction to an artisanal alcoholic beverage is analysed. Women, themselves victims of historical preconceptions of higher magnitudes, are dribbling poverty with producing a fermented drink that is strong and crafted in some dodgy ways. There are reports of some consumers going blind after drinking this 'Moonshine' drink. Reports of the drink being cut with methanol or, even though unreported, sometimes with chloroform. Well, methanol in alcoholic drinks occurs almost spontaneously and if kept within legal levels (e.g., 0.4% in the European Union) will not harness harm. But when illicit methylated drinks are manufactured containing poisonous levels of methanol (some believe it'd be about 5% (V/V):95% (V/V) ethanol) [1] different serious adverse effects emerge. Blindness, metabolic disturbances such as renal failure, neurological dysfunction and even detrimental cardiovascular impact can occur [2].
The documentary describes addiction and toxicological effects in a fashion that brings back this modern bizarre idea of the Western civilised world taking tours of poverty tourism through the intestines of infected slums, whilst reacting in astonishment... as if suddenly what is seen is consequence of poor choice rather than the results of historical utter and inhumane exploitation through centuries of abysmal disrespect for other humans. Nevertheless, I watched it for the science, conscientious that science wasn't their immediate affliction, but the detached consequential vomiting of a reality. The consumption of Waragi (a native language mutation of the words war & gin) is the locals' favourite drink. Waragi, a war heritage from the times the natives were fighting for the crown during World War I and II. A drink so popular that has known many shapes and forms. The documentary even shows us that some have perfected or created their own flavours with, for example, fermented peeled bananas left to ripen for four days, squeezed for their juices, boiled, cut with industrial chemicals!!!! All of this taking place in pre-fabricated sheds with non-existent hygiene control of any sort or type. Suddenly quoted facts strike one numb:
"In April 2010 more than 80 people died after drinking Waragi contaminated with high amounts of methanol over a three week period in the Kambala district" it was said.
The documentary reveals us that more than 60% of those people's income is related to alcohol. Education is paid from profits directly emerging from commerce of alcohol, and that it is so rooted in their culture that in certain Ugandan communities alcohol is given to children as part of initiation rituals for I don't-know-what-purpose! In addition, and from the understanding that we are given to take, women depend on Waragi to survive financially in a nation that is still extremely male chauvinist. But this financial dependency has been officially scrutinised from so long ago that the illicit 'problem' was made an economic established legality with the Enguli Act [3] of 1965.
However, it doesn't matter matter how many laws are made to embezzle a serious problem, be it financial or sanitary or the mix of both, if a country's structure and culture is not ready to understand the need for scientific knowledge simultaneously applied with the necessary regulations, the social fabrics will always perish amidst the inconsequential poverty and ignorance.
One thing is obvious from this documentary - The sanitary conditions involved in the process of brewing this produce are appalling! Even when we are moved from the rural areas to what is called the inner-city capital (where you expect conditions to help overcome the quality of the produce from villages) one is stunned by the fact that hygiene is basically non-existent. All this whilst one is coldly stung by the image of heavily addicted drinkers residing side by side with Waragi 'factories' as if they were crack-houses where the drug is made and served to zombies who depend on it to paradoxically function.
I was mesmerised by the self-assumption of the ridicule in some of the locals when one of them said that "[we] call it sulfuric acid flavoured with purified magnesium".
I was left speechless by so many things in this documentary, but above all, by my own incapacity to deal with the sadness that preyed on me whilst watching it. I had this article drafted for a long time, nevertheless, there was something in me that just couldn't trigger that energy to research on the toxicological aspects that actually jump out of this topic and beg dismantlement. I just couldn't do a good job writing about it. You can witness it as you read through though. The post is broken in phases that stumble on each other. I am totally aware of that. It is that it appears to me that sometimes these documentaries are not made to inform, or their immediate existence does not come from an informational view point; or the seeking of scientific validation. They often appear to be mere poverty tourism screenshots where people go sneak-peak at the bottom of human dignity to see the lengths other humans will subject themselves to, in order to just survive.
[1] Paine, A. J.; Dayan, A. D. (2001). "Defining a tolerable concentration of methanol in alcoholic drinks". Human and Experimental Toxicology, 20(11), pp. 563-568.
[2] Jahan, K. Mahmood, D., Fahim, M. (2015). "Effects of methanol in blood pressure and heart rate in the rat". J Pharm Bioallied Sci., 7(1), pp. 60–64.
[3] Willis, J. (2007). "‘Clean Spirit’: Distilling, Modernity, and the Ugandan State, 1950–86". Joural of Eastern African Studies, 1(1), pp. 79-92.
Post image kindly taken from PEP Foru - Uganda [https://pepforumuganda.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/pep-forum-ugandas-moonshine-epidemic/].
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