Supermalt: The malt drink created after the Nigerian civil war

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1972, a food supplement used by soldiers during the Nigerian civil war was turned into a popular malt drink by a brewery in the Danish town of Faxe.

It was called Supermalt and it became so popular that the Nigerian government decided to ban all imports of malt into the country.

Peter Rasmussen created the drink and he has been sharing his memories with Matt Pintus.

(Photo: Supermalt. Credit: Royal Unibrew Ltd)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm John Ronson and I'm an invisible enemy.
0:05.0	That changed people psychologically.
0:08.0	Words can be dangerous if you don't know the context.
0:12.0	We were told to stay at home.
0:15.0	We lived with an invisible enemy,
0:17.0	with only the internet for company.
0:19.0	That changed people psychologically.
0:21.0	I'm John Ronson, and I'll be unerthing the roots of the culture
0:24.8	wars that engulfed us then and still do now.
0:28.8	The award-winning podcast, Things Fell apart, returns.
0:33.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	Hello, you're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:45.2	Matt Pintus. Today how a food supplement used by soldiers during the Nigerian Civil War
0:52.4	became a drink enjoyed in more than 70 countries around the world. We start in 1967 in the town of Foxa in eastern Denmark. Brewmaster Peter Rasmussen is at a meeting with local businessman and top of
1:16.9	the agenda is news of an unusual opportunity in Nigeria.
1:21.9	There was a demand for a healthy drink and there was another Danish company called
1:30.3	Dumix.
1:31.3	They had brought a moldink on the market called Maltakes.
1:35.8	Dumas is a pharmaceutical company, so at the beginning I think they brought it out in
1:40.9	the pharmaceutical shops. And it was from these chemists that Nigerians were buying the Malt-based drink.
1:49.1	Buy the bucketful.
1:50.6	A good friend of mine he was doing business in Nigeria and then he came to the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.