Scourge of Life or an Economic Lifeline? Public Discourses on Khat (Catha edulis) in Ethiopia

Abstract

Until the turn of the 20th century, only the religious and political elite of the city of Harer in eastern Ethiopia chewed khat. Its consumption has since spread to all regions of Ethiopia and all social groups, irrespective of religious affiliation, gender category, and age bracket, have taken up the habit. In a few decades khat has been transformed from a shrub grown for domestic consumption to the region's predominant cash crop; from a substance chewed on religious and cultural occasions to a visible and pervasive social habit; from a product sold in local markets to the most profitable commodity, whose trade involves millions of farmers, traders, and other service providers in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The growing importance of khat has engendered a heated national debate in Ethiopia concerning the legal status of the plant. Opponents contend that khat is a health hazard with deleterious socioeconomic consequences and seek a complete ban to curb its “evil influence” on the country's youth and future. Others oppose any policy that ignores khat's micro- and macroeconomic benefits. This article outlines the positions the protagonists in this debate have staked out, critically evaluates their merits, and concludes by urging a public discourse on how to use the prosperity that the khat industry has generated to engender a sustainable economic development.

Keywords:

• Khat
• Harerge
• consumption
• commodity
• health effects
• food security
• income sustainability

Notes

Notes

¹ There are, of course, exceptions. The best known recent publications that promote a more positive image of khat are studies based on the situation in Yemen. See Shelagh Weir, Qat in Yemen: Consumption and Social Change. Kevin Rushby's Eating the Flowers of Paradise: A Journey Through the Drug Fields of Ethiopia and Yemen is less academic but presents a fascinating picture of the culture surrounding khat in Harerge and Yemen. The best comprehensive study on the science of khat is John G. Kennedy's The Flower of Paradise: Institutionalized Use of the Drug Qat in North Yemen.

² The study also found that HIV cases were higher among the married than the single and among Christians than non-Christian subjects. This fact alone, however, did not lead to the conclusion that marriage and Christianity make individuals vulnerable to HIV.

³ According to Reginald Green's estimate, Ethiopia produces khat on the order of $400 to $500 million at wholesale prices. A third of this is exported to Djibouti and Somaliland, and the bulk consumed in the Somali Regional State and by the Somali community in Addis Ababa. A significant amount is also consumed in the Oromiya Regional State. In nearly all of these areas, the consumers are Muslims who do not mix alcohol with khat.

⁴ The Ethiopian government has never been comfortable publishing accurate figures of khat production, consumption, or export earnings. Officials have occasionally blurted out some figures, which, in 2000, an independent newspaper was able to capture and report. “Khat has become the backbone of our country's economy” (Moresh, 2000, p. 1). The year 1999 given in the text refers to the Ethiopian fiscal year 1991, which begins on September 11, 1998, and ends on December 31, 1999, in the Gregorian calendar.

⁵ At the time of my research in 1994, I met farmers who had sold 1 kg of khat for 1,100 birr that year.