Pito, the saviour of the Northern Territories for 60 years!
It will come as a shock to know that the people of today’s Northern Regions (Upper East, Upper West, North East, Northern and Savannah Regions) were denied access to liquor for over 60 years.
What might intrigue you the most is that the people of Southern Ghana had unlimited access to liquor even when they visited the Northern Regions.
Since the 1890s, after the Brussel and St Germaine international liquor treaties, the colonial government brought the Northern Protectorates under this treaty, making it impossible for people of the Northern Protectorates to take liquor.
These treaties were aimed at minimizing the slave trade in the region.
On the contrary, alcohol consumption became a problem in southern Ghana to the extent that the Wesleyan Mission in the Gold Coast, the Metropolitan Temperament Movement, and some Chiefs and educated elites called for its prohibition.
Despite their efforts, they were only regulated, which did not cause significant changes in consumption.
After the first election held under universal suffrage in Ghana on 8 February 1951, the gradual transfer of political power was accompanied by demands for the complete prohibition of liquor restriction on the Northern Territories.
In 1953, under the CPP government, the prohibition of liquor consumption by inhabitants of the Northern Territories was repealed.
It is interesting to know that the people of the Northern Territories found their way out of this gross discrimination by colonial authorities. They made their own beer called ‘Pito’, which rivalled the imported liquors. The two main types of Pito were, Dagomba and Moshie.
It will interest you to know that the legalization of Akpeteshie, which the British banned, became a campaign message for some CPP candidates in the 1951 & 1954 elections.
This we will reserve for another day.
Stephen Baidoo is a writer who loves to research about Ghana's past. He brings Ghana's history to life with each unearthed fact and forgotten narrative, transforming dry dates into passionate stories.
