Aim: The study investigated how beer drinkers coped, made sense of, and internalised the effects of the 30% alcohol levy implementation in Botswana in 2008. Methods: Constructivist grounded theory guided this study and explored how active beer drinkers ( n = 20) coped with the new alcohol reforms. Results: Beer drinkers resisted the new alcohol reforms through various acts theorised as individualised resistance, social drinking networks and seeking alternative drinking avenues. These resistance(s) are synergistic, fluid and situated. Actions by beer drinkers are culturally framed, enacted through the aegis of time to entrench drinker’s autonomy. Conclusions: The alcohol levy implementation in Botswana illuminates the intersection of power, culture and resistance. Policies that are perceived to be draconian and not evidence-based are likely to be resisted by consumers. An examination of the interplay between power/resistance is critical for future alcohol policy development.

The article examines the impact of digital technologies as emerging platforms for social activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Even though the African continent still lags behind in smartphone ownership and internet connectivity compared to other regions of the world, there is enough evidence to suggest that online-based movements have fundamentally transformed political engagement in Africa. This article uses the cases of hashtag activisms #ThisFlag (Zimbabwe) and #RhodesMustFall (South Africa), to demonstrate that social media has accentuated resistance in Africa. Particular attention is directed to the unique ways in which online-based movements have been used to enact resistance. The article provides critical insights into the centrality of context in the discussion of social media efficacy. State response and the promise of social media activism as foci for resistance is further outlined in the article.

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Efforts to control and regulate alcohol has recently gained steam in Botswana. Inspired by a public health perspective, the government of Botswana has recently increased the alcohol tax levy, reduced the hours of operation for bars and increased penalties for alcohol-related offences to control alcohol-related harm. While these reforms have been central to policymaking, and caused some controversy, not much is known about the everyday experiences of alcohol consumers in Botswana. Drawing from semi-structured interviews (n = 40) collected amongst drinkers over a five-year period, this paper examines the everyday use of alcohol in Botswana. The analysis demonstrates that alcohol use constitutes an important part of leisure and night-time economy (NTE) activities in Botswana. It is a functional social activity that is used by people to take time away from the routines and pressures of daily life. More importantly, it is pleasurable to people, enhances sociability, and partaken as a form of transaction between men and women in bars. There is need for policy makers to consider the embodied experiences of alcohol use when designing alcohol interventions in Botswana.

Alcohol consumption studies in sub-Saharan Africa have largely focused on social control and regulatory mechanisms in specific settings without particular reference to how drinkers negotiate and navigate their drinking selves. Existing studies do not give enough attention to how consumers enact, make sense and experience drinking in light of state regulatory efforts. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach among twenty (20) beer drinkers, this study identifies how beer drinkers in Botswana experienced alcohol. Our findings demonstrate a theoretical category of Negotiating the Drinking Self where beer drinkers constructed and enacted a drinking self throughout the life-course, from the point of exposure at home through adolescence and up to maturity. The drinking self-constitutes an important part of the drinker’s identity and adapts to each stage of the life-course. Among the working poor in Botswana, beer drinking is complex, situated and embedded in webs of patterned social interactions.