"Kill me Quick"

Distilled liquors were largely unknown in East Africa until their introduction by John Hanning Speke and Samuel Baker in the 1860s. These British explorers distilled alcohol based on banana and sweet potato on several occasions for the local kings, who were very impressed with the strong drink. One of the kings, Kamurasi of Bunyoro, even wanted one of Baker's Sudanese soldiers to stay behind to distill for him.|The spread of distilled liquors in East Africa was closely associated with colonial rule, and particularly with the Nubi (Sudanese) soldiers of the colonial powers. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the British and German East African armies relied …