Book Review
Taking the Place of Food; Khat in Ethiopia
1 September, 2010 | By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Taking the Place of Food; Khat in Ethiopia.
Edited by Ezekiel Gebissa (The Red Sea Press, Inc, 2010)
Review by Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)
regions of the Ethiopian nation.
Khat is now becoming an integral part of Western European
countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia. An estimated
five to ten million people are now Khat chewers.
In Ethiopia, khat has become so important that certain lands
previously reserved for food crop cultivation are being replaced by
Khat.
Ethiopia’s dilemma is choosing between real food and Khat.
According to Hussein Ahmed, in Wollo, the strictly religious uses to
Khat for devotional purposes among the Muslims are giving way to
the lax and hedonistic practices among Christian users, and most
particularly the youth. (Pp, 24-25).
In Jimma, Southern Ethiopia, the unemployed suburban youth and
others use Khat to dream, to imagine and to engage in illusory
removal of pain and hopelessness by taking refuge in chewing the
leaf to only discover that their miseries remain the same long after
the euphoria of Khat vanishes.
Daniel Mains furnishes us with detailed interviews with Ethiopian
youth and we are left with a frightening picture of an Ethiopian state
that has failed its youth by permanent unemployment and addiction
to Khat. (30-57)
However devastating the health conditions of Khat chewers, for
Gebissa, the economic benefits to Khat in Ethiopian economic lives
cannot be overestimated. Gebissa argues that the proceeds from
Khat are enabling some enterprising Ethiopians to change their life
chances by moving out of farming into retail and service sectors in
urban centers. (P, 124)
Dagol reinforces this point by noting that, the health hazards of Khat
are inconclusive and the economic benefits of Khat deserve a more
compelling discussion of regulating its consumption without banning
it. As he put it,”The prohibition agenda threatens the livelihood of
many farmers and traders as well as criminalizing them” (p, 147)
Habtemariam Kassa agrees with Dagol that focusing on regulation
of consumption; effective information and communication among the
consumers of Khat will have a durable value than simply focusing on
prohibition and criminalization. (P, 186)
In the Afterword, Christopher Chatam subtly observes that “Other
contributors to this volume have described the large amount of time
spent indolently in chewing sessions, and the amount of income of
often very poor people dissipated on buying the essential leaves.
Any visitor to areas of large scale Khat consumption can testify to
its longer-term debilitating effects in reducing some men (by far the
main consumers) to premature senility.
This is a crucial point that merits volumes of study on the existential
conditions of the poors of Ethiopia. The dysfunctional Ethiopian
state is condemning the poors of Ethiopia to be victims of the
dilemmas of the Ethiopian state.
If we had a functional state that would provide its people – the
fundamentals of life- by creatively satisfying their rights to real food,
shelter and clothing so that their able bodies can engage in work as
opposed to idle chewing, their lives would be so different, and their
imaginary powers could be used in developing a functional state that
would free them from using Khat in place of food.
I commend the editor and the contributors for writing such a timely
and challenging book, and Red Sea Press for producing a clean and
beautiful book.
--------------------------------------------------
Teodros Kiros Professor of Philosophy and English (Liberal
Arts) Berklee College of Music is also a Senior Editor at Ethio
Quest News. His weekly column appear here
Taking the Place of Food; Khat in Ethiopia
1 September, 2010 | By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Taking the Place of Food; Khat in Ethiopia.
Edited by Ezekiel Gebissa (The Red Sea Press, Inc, 2010)
Review by Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)
- Taking the place of
Food: Khat in
Ethiopia is an
absorbing book.
Well-written and
researched chapters
provide a stimulating
understanding of
Khat as a cash crop,
a stimulant and a
regions of the Ethiopian nation.
Khat is now becoming an integral part of Western European
countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia. An estimated
five to ten million people are now Khat chewers.
In Ethiopia, khat has become so important that certain lands
previously reserved for food crop cultivation are being replaced by
Khat.
Ethiopia’s dilemma is choosing between real food and Khat.
According to Hussein Ahmed, in Wollo, the strictly religious uses to
Khat for devotional purposes among the Muslims are giving way to
the lax and hedonistic practices among Christian users, and most
particularly the youth. (Pp, 24-25).
In Jimma, Southern Ethiopia, the unemployed suburban youth and
others use Khat to dream, to imagine and to engage in illusory
removal of pain and hopelessness by taking refuge in chewing the
leaf to only discover that their miseries remain the same long after
the euphoria of Khat vanishes.
Daniel Mains furnishes us with detailed interviews with Ethiopian
youth and we are left with a frightening picture of an Ethiopian state
that has failed its youth by permanent unemployment and addiction
to Khat. (30-57)
However devastating the health conditions of Khat chewers, for
Gebissa, the economic benefits to Khat in Ethiopian economic lives
cannot be overestimated. Gebissa argues that the proceeds from
Khat are enabling some enterprising Ethiopians to change their life
chances by moving out of farming into retail and service sectors in
urban centers. (P, 124)
Dagol reinforces this point by noting that, the health hazards of Khat
are inconclusive and the economic benefits of Khat deserve a more
compelling discussion of regulating its consumption without banning
it. As he put it,”The prohibition agenda threatens the livelihood of
many farmers and traders as well as criminalizing them” (p, 147)
Habtemariam Kassa agrees with Dagol that focusing on regulation
of consumption; effective information and communication among the
consumers of Khat will have a durable value than simply focusing on
prohibition and criminalization. (P, 186)
In the Afterword, Christopher Chatam subtly observes that “Other
contributors to this volume have described the large amount of time
spent indolently in chewing sessions, and the amount of income of
often very poor people dissipated on buying the essential leaves.
Any visitor to areas of large scale Khat consumption can testify to
its longer-term debilitating effects in reducing some men (by far the
main consumers) to premature senility.
This is a crucial point that merits volumes of study on the existential
conditions of the poors of Ethiopia. The dysfunctional Ethiopian
state is condemning the poors of Ethiopia to be victims of the
dilemmas of the Ethiopian state.
If we had a functional state that would provide its people – the
fundamentals of life- by creatively satisfying their rights to real food,
shelter and clothing so that their able bodies can engage in work as
opposed to idle chewing, their lives would be so different, and their
imaginary powers could be used in developing a functional state that
would free them from using Khat in place of food.
I commend the editor and the contributors for writing such a timely
and challenging book, and Red Sea Press for producing a clean and
beautiful book.
--------------------------------------------------
Teodros Kiros Professor of Philosophy and English (Liberal
Arts) Berklee College of Music is also a Senior Editor at Ethio
Quest News. His weekly column appear here
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