Enjeux politiques de l'alcool en Afrique du Sud : prohibition et réorganisation commerciale en temps de Covid-19 Political issues of alcohol in South Africa during Covid19. A case study of a retail shop Résumés En Afrique du Sud, pendant la période du Covid 19, le confinement s'est accompagné d'une prohibition de la consommation de l'alcool. L'article s'intéresse au cas de Herve, caviste à Durban (le très grand port sud-africain de l'océan Indien, situé dans la province du KwaZulu-Natal), dont il décrit les stratégies pour survivre durant cette période d'incertitudes, en devenant « invisible ». Il montre comment Herve a été protégé par ses nouveaux voisins, des Sud-Africains d'origine indienne, musulmans, dans ce quartier en transformation, alors que sa boutique est un commerce de niche dont la clientèle est issue de la classe moyenne, surtout blanche. Sa marchandise, l'alcool, est éminemment politique en Afrique du Sud et s'inscrit dans une longue histoire de rapports de domination, entre, d'un côté, contrôle et prohibition de la part des autorités et, de l'autre, résistances populaires. L'épidémie a permis aussi de renouer avec des discours moraux sur l'alcool, qui se substituent à la condamnation de la domination sociale et raciale. This case study focuses on Herve's wine store in Durban, the country's largest port. What was once a white neighbourhood is now in transition with a concentration of Indian South African Muslims. Research took place during and after a period of alcohol prohibition imposed by the national government as part of a series of restrictions related to the Covid pandemic. Herve's story reveals his own pragmatic adjustment to the disruptions and shortages of this period to keep his business by keeping his head down, becoming "invisible". The article places this episode in a history of alcohol consumption and prohibition which lies at the centre of South Africa's extreme form of racism and African resistance to segregation. Durban was the first city in the country to institute racial segregation that later went national. Alcohol played a major role in SEARCH All OpenEdition Enjeux politiques de l'alcool en Afrique du Sud : prohibition et réorgani... https://journals.openedition.org/metropoles/10196 1 sur 26 10/12/2023 11:50 defining the boundaries of racial inequality, under the Durban system named after its original locus. Beer production and consumption became a major site of violent conflict, often involving gender as well as race and class. Both in the colonial era and during Covid, overconsumption of alcohol and its pathologies became a displacement of racial exploitation.