Rule of Straw...

...that stirs the drinking, in Uganda:

The adoption of a "one-man, one-straw" rule in home brew drinking clubs in eastern Uganda has seen a resurgence of a declining social tradition.

...."Previously all us here shared only one straw which would rotate among the drinkers," says James Omongin, chairman of the Half London Club in Tororo district.

"The group time-keeper would allow each member to suck the stuff for three minutes before passing the straw to the next member."

But drinkers often violated these rules, refusing to pass on the straw, which led to people giving up their membership.

"Then there was the warning of the medical doctors to the ajono drinkers to depart from the old-fashioned style of sharing the tubes to avoid the spread of certain communicable diseases including TB," Mr Omongin says.

So ajono drinkers now buy their own epi (drinking straw) which they can decorate or label or hire ones that are sterilised with hot water after use.