Beer in Africa Bedele were acquired by Heineken's parent company and re-branded. Some of the best Ethiopian brands include: Golden Star, brewed by the Golden Star Brewery, is the unique beer in Eritrea after the closing of Asmara Brewery (ex Melotti) which had been brewing beer since the colonial era. Tusker, brewed by the Kenya Breweries Limited, is the most-popular beer in Kenya. Popularly known as "Keroro" beer, Tusker is a source of Kenyan pride highlighted in the late 1990s, when East African Breweries waged a marketing war against Castle Breweries, a subsidiary of international brewing giant SABMiller. In this media campaign, Castle,
Bati, Ethiopia Before the Italian invasion, most of a 100-kilometer road between Bati and Dessie had been completed. Telephone service reached Bati by 1956: the town had two telephones, for the police and for the residence of the Crown Prince. The town also had postal service well before that time. The earliest mention of Bati is in the 1930s, but Paul B. Henze believed that the market "must antedate the town by at least 200 or 300 years." He adds, "I have been unable to find references of very early travellers to Bati, which may have had a different name in earlier