ISIKOKEYANA... a diminutive form of the adverb isikokela, from the Nguni kokela ʻencircleʼ, ʻsurroundʼ. During the last century, the name isikokeyana was given to a type of alcoholic beverage clandestinely brewed and consumed by shantytown-dweller s of South Africaʼs segregated urban areas. The brew was placed in the centre of a small circle of men … out of sight of disapproving passersby and police. As in traditional beer-drinking, a tin-vessel containing the brew was passed around using both hands, in the anticlockwise dimension referred to by the Nguni as ʻthe hand for eating withʼ. If found guilty by a court of law - whether drinking or selling ʻskokiaanʼ - those sentenced were routinely sold to farms as cheap labour to harvest potato-fields.