For Ethiopia’s underemployed youth, life can center on khat leaves BY KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURA | THE NEW YORK TIMES Her life revolves around a psychotropic leaf. Yeshmebet Asmamaw, 25, has made chewing the drug a ritual, repeated several times a day: She carefully lays papyrus grass on the floor of her home, brews coffee and […]
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Chewing themselves into madness? This mild narcotic plant may generate substantial amount of revenue to the governments, but it also disrupts people’s lives. By Chuko and Mama | The Economist, “This is Khat,” explains Teklu Kaimo, gesturing to the wooded field behind him. He started growing it in 1976, and over the years its soft, green leaves […]
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By Josh Wood, ACROSS the world, the rhythm of the day is determined by different things: the nine-to-five grind of financial hubs, the intervention of the afternoon siesta in some hotter reaches and the cycle of prayers in parts of the Islamic world. Djibouti moves to a different cadence. Djibouti moves to khat (aka Qat). […]
Continue ReadingBy AFP, FOR a town seen as a key trading centre for khat, a drug that is banned in many countries, Ethiopia’s Awaday can seem pretty drowsy and laid-back. As the sun sets on the small eastern town, farmers and brokers of the amphetamine shrub rouse from an afternoon slumber to cut deals in the bustling […]
Continue ReadingBy Janet Otieno, The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Djibouti was that people usually disappear from around midday to about 4.30 pm. The streets are deserted, shops and government offices are closed, not for afternoon prayers, but because people have gone to take a nap or enjoy their hobby of chewing khat […]
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