Khat Overview
Khat is an evergreen shrub that grows wildly and is native to the horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Khat grows best at an altitude of 5,000-8,000 feet and can grow as high as 80 feet in equatorial climate. About 20 million people who live mostly in these two regions chew its fresh young leaves for it's psychostimulant effect. Khat chewing is deeply ingrained in their society and culture (done largely as a social activity) and is usually accompanied by a drink, since users experience dryness of the mouth.
A selection of publications
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Barċā : ċāt
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On various social, economic, and health implications of chewing catha edulis. in Amharic.
Call Number: HV5822.Q3 T37 2012Publication Date: 2004 [2012] -
Consuming Cultures, Global Perspectives
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Globalization and consumerism are two of the buzzwords of the early twenty-first century. In Consuming Cultures, renowned scholars explore the links between modernity and consumption. The book fills a gap in contemporary thinking on the subject by approaching it from a truly global point-of-view. It draws on case studies from around the world, with Africa, Asia and Central America featuring as prominently as Western countries. A transnational perspective allows the authors to investigate the diversity of consumer cultures and the interaction between them. The authors look at the genealogy of the modern consumer and the development of consumer cultures, from the porcelain trade and consumption in Britain and China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to post Second World War developments in America and Japan, and the contemporary consumer politics of cosmopolitan citizenship. Challenging and pioneering, Consuming Cultures problematizes popular accounts of globalization and consumerism, decentring the West and concentrating on putting history back into these accounts.
ISBN: 1845202465Publication Date: 2006-06-01 -
Ethnic Identity and Development
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This book presents data on Ugandan khat within the context of international debates on the drug, and the proposed ban in 2009. By telling of the story of khat, the book will serve as a vehicle for the analysis of social change, development priorities and shifting ethnic identities in Uganda over the last 80 years.
ISBN: 9780230623101Publication Date: 2010-07-21 -
Gender, Drink and Drugs
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Why do so many people feel compelled to drink alcohol or take drugs? And why do so many men drink and so many women refrain? Using ideas from social anthropology, this book attempts to provide a novel answer to these questions. The introduction surveys both gender and addiction. It points out that we cannot say what men or women are really like, in any culturally innocent sense, for gender is always, even in the realm of biology, a cultural matter. The ethnographic chapters, ranging from Ancient Rome to modern Japan, similarly suggest how any substance - from alcohol to tea to heroin - inevitably takes its meaning or reality in the cultural system in which it exists.This book will be of interest to medical anthropologists, medical sociologists, anyone with an interest in the contemporary direction of anthropology as well as those working in the fields of alcohol and addiction.
ISBN: 0854967192Publication Date: 1994-06-14 -
Hope Is Cut
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How do ambitious young men grapple with an unemployment rate in urban Ethiopia hovering around fifty percent? Urban, educated, and unemployed young men have been the primary force behind the recent unrest and revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. Daniel Mains' detailed and moving ethnographic study, a"Hope is Cut," examines young men's struggles to retain hope for the future in the midst of economic uncertainty and cultural globalization. Through a close ethnographic examination of young men's day-to-day livesa"Hope is Cut"aexplores the construction of optimism through activities like formal schooling, the consumption of international films, and the use of khat, a mild stimulant. Mains also provides a consideration of social theories concerning space, time, and capitalism. Young men here experience unemployment as a problem of timeOCothey often congregate on street corners, joking that the only change in their lives is the sun rising and setting. Mains addresses these factors and the importance of reciprocity and international migration as a means of overcoming the barriers to attaining aspirations.
ISBN: 9781439904794Publication Date: 2011-11-04 -
Kenyan Khat
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This book provides a richly detailed ethnography of Kenyan khat, tracing some of the many national and transnational trajectories this controversial stimulant takes from its centre of production in the Nyambene Hills to consumers in Kenya and throughout the world. The author, guided by his friend and khat connoisseur M'Mucheke, draws out the full economic, social and cultural significance of the substance, situating this significance within current debates on the legality of khat and the global rhetoric of the 'war on drugs'. The work explores how networks of Kenyan khat bring people of diverse backgrounds together in sometimes uneasy relationships, and highlights the vast cluster of meanings this remarkable commodity has accrued in its 'social life'.
ISBN: 9004156593Publication Date: 2007-02-26 -
The Khat Controversy
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Khat. A harmless natural stimulant or a lethal epidemic sweeping through the international drugs trade? Khat is a natural substance that, in the Middle East, is as ubiquitous as coffee is in the West. It is hugely popular in some African and Arab populations. But critics contend that it is a seriously addictive stimulant that damages the cardiovascular system.In a groundbreaking study, the authors go behind the veil of the drug, questioning its availability and its effect on its Red Sea producers. Interwoven with case studies from Djibouti to Rome, The Khat Controversy goes deeper to explore contemporary issues relating to globalization, ethnicity and culture. With its popularity escalating in London, Rome, Toronto and Copenhagen, khat is fast becoming a problem in the West. The first study of this contested drug, The Khat Controversy provides a concise introduction to the issues surrounding khat usage and suggests how policymakers should address them.The Khat Controversy: Stimulating the Debate on Drugs has received an honorable mention for the African Studies Association's 2008 Melville J. Herskovits Award
ISBN: 1845202511Publication Date: 2007-05-01 -
Pirate Trails
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Traditionally piracy has produced sentimental notions of adventure, freedom, and independence. However, piracy is a criminal act and often involves high levels of violence that can have a devastating impact on the victims. 21st Century piracy has evolved into a highly complex system involving a cast of characters, each motivated by a mix of economic and social reasons. While the focus of the international community has been on dealing with piracy through counter piracy operations that include naval, air, and military operations, this book attempts to understand the illicit financial flows from the proceeds of piracy and to espouse the cause for the detection, disruption, and confiscation of proceeds from acts of piracy.
ISBN: 9780821399637Publication Date: 2013-11-14 -
Proceedings of the 1st International Congress of Somali Studies
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ISBN: 0891306587Publication Date: 1992-11-01 -
Qat in Yemen: Consumption and Social Change
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Call Number: 362.293 W425qISBN: 0714115681Publication Date: 1985 -
The Speed of Change
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In the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motor-cycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet its impact extends across the totality of human existence; from ecological devastation to economic advancement, from cultural transformation to political change, through to a myriad of other themes. This edited volume of eleven contributions by historians, anthropologists and social and political scientists explores aspects of the social history and anthropology of the motor-vehicle in Africa.
ISBN: 9789004177352Publication Date: 2009-07-31 -
Chemical and ethnopharmacological aspects : International Symposium on Khat (Catha edulis), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 15, 1984 : proceedings
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Botanical aspects of "khat" Catha edulis (Celectraceae) / Sebsebe Demissew (8 p.). -- Recent progress in khat chemistry / Kalman Szendrei (20 p.). -- Analytical and chemical aspects of khat / R Brenneisen (36 p.). -- Pharmacology of khat / Peter Kalix (8 p.). -- Clinical effects of khat (Catha edulis Forsk) / Amha Mekasha (6 p.). -- Polydrug use among Ethiopian university students with particular reference to khat (Catha edulis) / Zein Ahmed Zein (7 p.).
Call Number: 362.293 I61cPublication Date: [1984?] -
Drugs and the Law byISBN: 9781422402962Publication Date: 2005-01-01
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The health and socio-economic aspects of Khat use byCall Number: 362.293 I61hPublication Date: 1983
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Khat, a stimulating drug in Eastern Africa and the Arabian peninsula by Report from the Department of Sociology, University of GothenburgCall Number: Large 362.293 N4187kPublication Date: 1974
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Luigi Balugani's Drawings of African Plants byISBN: 0930606566Publication Date: 1991-01-01
