Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became AfricanTravel to virtually any African country and you are likely to find a Coca-Cola, often a cold one at that. Bottled asks how this carbonated drink became ubiquitous across the continent, and what this reveals about the realities of globalisation, development and capitalism. Bottled is the first assessment of the social, commercial and environmental impact of one of the planet's biggest brands and largest corporations, in Africa. Sara Byala charts the company's century-long involvement in everything from recycling and education to the anti-apartheid struggle, showing that Africans have harnessed Coca-Cola in varied expressions of modernity and self-determination: this is not a story of American capitalism running amok, but rather of a company becoming African, bending to consumer power in ways big and small. In late capitalism, everyone's fates are bound together. A beverage in Atlanta and a beverage in Johannesburg pull us all towards the same end narrative. This story matters for more than just the local reasons, enhancing our understanding of our globalised, integrated world. Drawing on fieldwork and research in company archives, Byala asks a question for our time: does Coca-Cola's generative work offset the human and planetary costs associated with its growth in the twenty-first century? |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
How CocaCola Established a Foothold in South Africa | 21 |
The Sun Never Sets on CocaCola | 51 |
How CocaCola Branded a Continent and Itself | 81 |
Securing a License to Operate | 113 |
CocaCola and the Undoing of Apartheid | 143 |
CocaCola in the New Millennium | 181 |
Weighing CocaColas Sustainability | 217 |
Conclusion | 259 |
Acknowledgments | 277 |
Notes | 281 |
| 343 | |
| 351 | |
Back Cover | 367 |
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Accessed 20 April advertisement American Animals of Africa anti-apartheid apartheid Atlanta author interview began Black bottlers Bottling Company bottling plants boycott brand campaign Cape Town carbonated Carl Ware Papers Coca Coca-Cola Africa Coca-Cola Archives Coca-Cola bottlers Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola Export Coca-Cola in Africa Coca-Cola Overseas Coggin Coke Coke business Coke's Cola company's consumers contest coolers created December disinvestment Egypt Egyptian EKOCENTER employees empowerment Export Corporation Export Newsletter Fanta February franchise Ghana global Gutsche helped Ibid initiatives internal Isdell Johannesburg July June Kariba Dam Kenya Killeen kiosks Kola Kunene launched Magazine manager Mandela March Mchunu meant Middle Africa Mineral Water Morocco Nairobi National Neville Isdell Nigeria October operations Paul Austin Peninsula Beverages President promotion Rand Daily Mail recycling Rhodesia Sabco Sahara soccer soda Soft Drink South Africa Sparletta spread story sugar Sullivan Principles sustainability Uganda women York Zambia Zimbabwe