beerhall, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special sense of general English.
A public establishment in a Black township where sorghum beer is sold, and which is run by the State or by a municipal authority. Also attributive.
[1900 Stat. Law of Sn Rhodesia 1899 II. 90‘Beer Hall Licences’ may be issued to brewers of beer manufactured in Southern Rhodesia for the sale of such beer by retail.]
1942 Cape Times 24 Dec. 7The shebeeners of large townships naturally press for the abolition of municipal beer-halls.
1942 Report of Native Affairs Commission to Enquire into Working of Provisions of Natives (Urban Areas) Act Relating to Use & Supply of Kaffir Beer 4The beerhall system in South Africa originated in Natal...In 1908 the Natal Beer Act (No. 23 of 1908) was passed...Official reports in the following year commented favourably on the operation of the Act at Durban and Pietermaritzburg where beer-halls had been established.
1951 Drum Oct. 6Tired of drinking Kaffir Beer at the Municipal Beer Hall, many Africans move along to where they can have doctored beer with a kick in it.
1958 Rand Daily Mail 9 June 5A beer hall in Daveyton, costing £105,000 is expected to yield a surplus of £725,680 by next year — the Law says some of this must be spent on social services.
1962 A.J. Luthuli Let my People Go 63The beer hall has become for us — and especially for the women — a symbol of legal robbery by whites.
1977 J. Sikakane Window on Soweto 35Where, then, does the money come from to keep the beerhalls and liquor stores busy with customers and thriving with money to finance the wastelands of the Bantustans?
1980 E. Joubert Long Journey of Poppie Nongena 308The black people in the Cape Town locations are rising, they are burning down buildings, smashing the beer halls, overturning cars and stoning the buses.
1986 Learn & Teach No.3, 32‘We hated the beerhalls.’ said Mrs Sibanda. ‘Our children were dying because of the beerhalls. On payday some men never went home. They went to the beerhalls. Then they drank until they had no money left.’
1990 W. Botha in Frontline Sept. 21‘I think this beer hall must be changed into a church,’ Shabalala says. ‘I don’t like these things — they cause only trouble.’
A public establishment in a Black township where sorghum beer is sold, and which is run by the State or by a municipal authority. Also attributive.
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beer-drinking, verbal nounvbl n.befok, adjectiveadj.
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