Sarah.

Good question. Do they make alcoholic beverages in West Africa? They
make drinks with cacao and kola nut (delivers kolanin and caffeine).
In sub-Saharan Africa they make alcoholic drinks with palm sap
(mainly around the equator or along the coast) or with corn (south
Africa) or with finger millet (eastern and central Africa) or with
sorgums and bananas and honey (widely used). All this from the
Cambridge World History of Food, pp. 684, 1336. No information on
West African homebrews - curious hole in the encyclopedia.

You might ask for West African alcohol recipes on the SORAC (Society
of Research on African Cultures) discussion boards:

http://chss2.montclair.edu/sorac/SORAC/SORACDiscBoards.html

If you find some, it would be nice to hear about them on this list.

Good luck,
Jon
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