A study of the smoking and drinking habits of 196 oesophageal cancer cases and 1064 control patients was made. All subjects were African males aged 35 years or more, drawn from a mainly urbanized population.It was found that tobacco smoking was prevalent and that pipe tobacco (used in pipes or in hand rolled cigarettes) was used more frequently than has been found in westernized countries. The drinking of alcohol was also a prevalent habit. Tribal affiliations were examined and all three of these factors showed differences between cases and controls. Further analysis of smoking and drinking together showed that only smoking had a positive association with oesophageal cancer, and this was also true after tribal adjustment had been made. A comparable analysis of data on Durban African males yielded similar findings.It was concluded that tobacco smoking was a powerful oesophageal insult but the authors were not able to show that alcohol was important in the development of oesophageal cancer in these people. Cigarette tobacco does not appear to be a significant oesophageal insult but pipe tobacco does, and the use of both these types of tobacco together may have a synergistic effect. Tribal affiliation has bearing on the smoking pattern.