Waragi’s origin is Turkish
EDITOR—An article you recently published repeats the very new idea that the word Waragi comes from ‘War Gin’. This is not correct. The word has another origin. Local strong distilled drink is known throughout the Arabic and Turkish-speaking world, all the way from the Balkans to Indonesia an
EDITOR—An article you recently published repeats the very new idea that the word Waragi comes from ‘War Gin’. This is not correct. The word has another origin. Local strong distilled drink is known throughout the Arabic and Turkish-speaking world, all the way from the Balkans to Indonesia and Malaysia as Arak or Araki.
The word Waragi is simply the Luganda (or other Bantu) version of Araki. The word came with the Nubian soldiers from Sudan, who probably got it from the Turks eventually. That is how the English name for the drink in East Africa used to be Nubian Gin. Later this name was generally dropped and in Kenya it became chang’aa, and of course a whole variety of other names as your article says.
In Buganda, enguli, for instance was the word when it was made locally from banana liquor. ‘Uganda Waragi’ was a trademark for enguli distilled again (they used to say three times) to make it clean and safe. Unlike Kenya which banned all types of traditional drinks, Uganda never did so and Uganda Waragi became quite well-known.
I wonder if ‘Uganda Waragi’ is still a trademark. If so others may even be misusing the name.
Barry Sesnan
bsesnan@yahoo.com
The word Waragi is simply the Luganda (or other Bantu) version of Araki. The word came with the Nubian soldiers from Sudan, who probably got it from the Turks eventually. That is how the English name for the drink in East Africa used to be Nubian Gin. Later this name was generally dropped and in Kenya it became chang’aa, and of course a whole variety of other names as your article says.
In Buganda, enguli, for instance was the word when it was made locally from banana liquor. ‘Uganda Waragi’ was a trademark for enguli distilled again (they used to say three times) to make it clean and safe. Unlike Kenya which banned all types of traditional drinks, Uganda never did so and Uganda Waragi became quite well-known.
I wonder if ‘Uganda Waragi’ is still a trademark. If so others may even be misusing the name.
Barry Sesnan
bsesnan@yahoo.com