Khat in the Western Indian Ocean

Abstract

Khat cultivation and consumption originated in the region surrounding the Red Sea and the Western Indian Ocean. It consists of the young stems and leaves of Catha edulis Forssk. consumed for their stimulating properties in the Arabian Peninsula, East and Southern Africa, Madagascar, and now by diaspora communities around the world.1 It is usually consumed by chewing, whereby – as with betel nut and coca – a plug of masticated leaves and stems is built up in the cheek. There is much ambiguity in the way khat is discussed, both in communities where it is consumed, and in the writings of researchers and policy-makers, and it has accreted a wide range of contradictory associations. Some relate the substance to peaceful gatherings, others to Somali militiamen; some praise it as the economic savior of African and Yemeni farmers, others see its consumption as a drain on family resources; defenders equate its effects with those of coffee, while detractors equate them with those of stronger substances. In this article we aim to make sense of this ambiguous crop and its importance for the Western Indian Ocean region (construed broadly to include the Red Sea Littoral), providing an overview of its role there, and analysis of the key discourse that informs debate about the substance, and influences how it is perceived and treated. There are many local histories of khat within the region, and we demonstrate particularities that emerge in locations as varied as Madagascar, Kenya and Yemen. However, there is convergence too: while some of this derives from khat’s botanical and pharmacological properties, especial attention will be given to global influences – in particular, the global rhetoric of the ‘war on drugs’ – that have affected the region over the last century or so and help prompt the same issues to be discussed from Meru in Kenya to Antsiranana in Madagascar.