Khat

Chewing on a bitter controversy

Ian Vincent
McGonigle
The author is a graduate
student at the University
of Chicago with research
interests in Middle Eastern
studies and the social study
of science. During the 2013-
2014 academic year he will
be a Visiting Fellow at the
Harvard Kennedy School
of Government’s program
on Science, Technology
and Society. His email is
mcgonigle@uchicago.edu
Thanks to Judith Farquhar,
Susan Gal and Constantine
Nakassis for advice on earlier
drafts of this essay. A Graduate
Fellowship, administered by
the Social Sciences Division
of the University of Chicago,
supported this work.
1. Ibn Hajar al-Haythami
(A.H.1308 in Al-Fatawa
al-Kubra al-Fiqhiyya IV: 223-
227), gave official written
opinion (fatwa) recording
arguments both for and
against the use of khat, finally
concluding that the ‘plant did
not have the same deliterious
[sic] effects as wine, opium
or hashish’ (cited in Varisco
1986: 9).
2. These pharmaceutical
grade amphetamines are used
to alleviate the symptoms of
conditions such as childhood
‘attention deficit disorder’ and
‘hyperactivity’.
Al-Mamari, I. 2011. Qat
chewing increases among
Yemeni young girls. Yemen
Observer, 19 January.
Almas, A.A.M. & M. Scholz
2006. Agriculture and water
resources crisis in Yemen:
Need for sustainable
agriculture. Journal of
Sustainable Agriculture
28(3): 55-75.
Al-Motarreba, A. et al.
2010. Khat chewing,
cardiovascular diseases
and other internal medical
problems: The current
Khat has recently become an object of concern in the UK after ‘khat
pubs’, popular with Somali, Yemeni, and Ethiopian immigrants,
sprung up across the country. Against the advice of its own Advisory
Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the UK government
decided to ban khat later this year. The UK will then treat khat
as a class C drug, making it illegal to supply or possess. The UK
home secretary said ‘The decision to bring khat under control is
finely balanced and takes into account the expert scientific advice
and these broader concerns.’ But in response to the government’s
announcement, Professor David Nutt (chair of the ACMD) retorted,
saying ‘Banning khat shows contempt for reason and evidence,
disregard for the sincere efforts of the Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs’, specifically citing khat’s ‘relatively low harms’
in his remonstration. What are the risks of criminalizing already
marginalized communities? In this issue, Ian McGonigle looks at
the broader socio-cultural background of khat in Africa and the
Middle East, and analyses the global khat controversy as a complex
anthropological problem entangling development economics, public
health management, domestic fears of terrorism, and khat-mediated
democratic formations. Ed.
When the slender green succulent leaves of the khat tree
are chewed, a mild ‘natural amphetamine’ (Kalix 1992)
called cathinone is gradually released, and absorbed into
the bloodstream through the mouth and cheek tissues.
The effects, which last for several hours, include the sof-
tening of one’s temper, increased gregariousness, and a
piqued sexual appetite, while at the same time inhibiting
hunger, anxiety, and feelings of fatigue (Kalix 1990). It
is perhaps unsurprising then that in the Arabian peninsula
and the Horn of Africa, where khat is autochthonous, men
have been chewing it recreationally for hundreds of years
(Krikorian 1984; Varisco 1986; Weir 1985).
Khat chewing has recently surfaced as a global and
pointed controversy, however, featuring in academic
ethnopharmacology journals, the official publications of
neoliberal development organizations, and worldwide in
popular news media outlets. Khat has thus been variously
described as: an obstacle to economic growth; a pernicious
narcotic; a positive mediator of political discourse in the
public sphere; a public health concern; and a barrier to
national development. Of these ambiguous tensions, Klein
et al. (2012: 1) say that ‘Khat provides a unique example of
a herbal stimulant that is defined as an ordinary vegetable
in some countries and a controlled drug in others’, fin-
gering khat as an exemplar of a globally contested object
of concern – constituting different political stakes when
viewed from distinct situated perspectives – and ready
prey for anthropological critique.
This essay thus interrogates divergent formulations
Khat chewing has mainly remained localized in the
Islamic world, where it has been a topic of ambivalence
and scrutiny for some time, with debate simmering over
whether khat is a harmful drug and thereby not permis-
sible (haram) under Islamic law. In the 16th century,
Muslim jurists1 debated this issue, some having ‘argued
that the plant had forbidden properties similar to wine and
strong drink’, with others noting that khat ‘could aid in the
observance of religious duties by permitting individuals to
stay awake’ (Varisco 1986: 9). In Ibn Hajar al-Haythami’s
final analysis, however, khat’s fundamental properties are
defined oppositionally. His opinion specifically hinged
on the fact khat was not like opium, hashish, or wine: in
other words, substances to which khat differs in its social
consequences.
Khat from the West
It was not until 1975 that United Nations laboratories first
discovered the active ingredient of khat to be cathinone,
which they described as an amphetamine-like stimulant
compound (Mateen & Cascino 2000: 971). The 1970s
also saw a sharp increase in khat consumption in Yemen,
leading to a rapid doubling of its production (Weir 1985:
34) confirming khat chewing as a resilient, if not growing,
tradition. Since then, from the perspective of contempo-
rary law at least, the amphetamine-like pharmacology of
cathinone renders khat a substance that is legally control-
lable (Kalix 1992). With the classification of the newly
discovered compound cathinone as ‘amphetamine-like’,
khat then became a point of concern outside its imme-
diate sphere of consumption, with it becoming difficult,
and potentially criminal, to transport or be in possession
of khat.
In 1999, The New York Times described khat chewing
in Yemen as a national problem to be overcome, with the
practice of chewing caricatured as a ghettoized drug of the
NEIL PALMER / CC BY-SA 2.0

situation and directions for
future research. Journal of
Ethnopharmacology 132(3):
540-548.
Al-Yarisi, A. 2012. Students
chew qat to improve exam
performances. Yemen Times,
7 June.
Balint, E.E et al. 2009. Khat
– a controversial plant.
Wien Klin Wochenschr 121:
604-614.
Basunaid, S. et al. 2008.
Khat abuse in Yemen: A
population-based survey.
Clinical Research and
Regulatory Affairs 25(2):
87-92.
Fig. 1. A bundle of fresh khat
leaves.
Fig. 2. Molecular structure of
cathinone, an amphetamine-
like compound.
that khat has taken across the distinct political arenas that
orchestrate ‘the controversy’. Following a Latourian actor-
network approach (Latour 2005; 1988), I argue against a uni-
versal ontology of khat, suggesting instead that khat might
be more meaningfully traced and apprehended through the
political work it achieves in its various contexts and situated
deployments. Khat can thus be read as an actant through the
social activity that it coordinates, offering a critical reading
of khat as a ‘thing in movement’ that should speak to the
anthropology of controversy more broadly.
Birth of a controversy
Khat chewing is thought to date back as far as antiquity
(Balint et al. 2009), and legend has it that khat consump-
tion may have originated with ‘religious practitioners as
a way of remaining alert for all-night prayer vigils’ (Frye
1990: 284). The earliest confirmed use, however, is in 14th
century Ethiopia – incidentally, around the same time that
coffee consumption became popular (Weir 1985).

4 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 4, AUGUST 2013

Fig. 3. Khat fields in western
Yemen.
Fig. 4. A khat picnic in the
mountains, Yemen.
Fig. 5. Khat at a market near
Harar, southeastern Ethiopia.
Burns, J.F. 1999. Khat-
urban West, saying: ‘About 1,000 years after acquiring the
habit, the people … have never been more hooked’ (Burns
1999). CBC News (Evans 2008) made a playful, if racist,
satire of the custom: ‘You have only to stand on a Sana’a
street corner to see just how popular it is. It is a city full of
Dizzie Gillespies in full blow – huge cheeks popping out
at you everywhere you look – on buses or passing cyclists
and in the souks, sellers almost impossible to understand

ANTTI SALONEN / CC BY-SA 3.0

chewing Yemen told to
break ancient habit. New
York Times, 19 September.
Butters, A.L. 2009. Is Yemen
chewing itself to death?
Time, 25 August.
Evans, M. 2008. The real costs
of Yemen’s khat buzz. CBC
News, 20 June.
Frye, P. A. 1990. Form and
function of north Yemeni
qat sessions. Southern
Communication Journal
55(3): 294.
Gezon, L.L. & A.
Totomarovario 2008.
Encountering the
unexpected: Appropriating
the roles of researcher,
teacher, and advocate in a
drug study in Madagascar.
Practicing Anthropology
because their mouths are full of khat’. Moreover, in 2003,
the US Department of Justice (2003: 1) made their disap-
proval official, pronouncing that khat had a ‘high poten-
tial for abuse’. Following suit, Time magazine covered the
issue in 2009, reporting on Yemen’s capital Sana’a, stating
that ‘By 4 in the afternoon, most men walking the streets
of Sana’a are high, or about to get high’, calling the habit
‘a full-blown national addiction’ (Butters 2009). The same
article points to the interplay of gender and power in the
socio-politics of khat chewing, claiming ‘khat ceremo-
nies reinforce the exclusion of women from power’. In
contradistinction, however, the Yemen Observer paints a
more moderate picture on the gender issue, and with more
positive overtones reports that there has been a recent rise
in khat consumption amongst young women, stating that
‘Some chewers of Qat say that Qat brings them the strength
and a good memory in order to study well’ (Al-Mamari

AHRON DE LEEUW / CC-BY-2.0

30(3): 42-45.
Graziani, M. et al. 2008.
Khat chewing from the
pharmacological point of
view: An update. Substance
Use & Misuse 43(6): 762-
783.
Habermas, J. 1991 [1962]. The
structural transformation
of the public sphere: An
inquiry into a category
of bourgeois society.
Cambridge: MIT Press.
Hansen, P. 2010. The
ambiguity of khat in
Somaliland. Journal of
Ethnopharmacology 132(3):
590-599.
Hoffman, R. & M. Al’Absi
2010. Khat use and
neurobehavioral functions:
Suggestions for future
studies. Journal of
2011). Furthermore, the Yemen Times reports that Yemeni
students are turning towards khat to help them with aca-
demic performance, despite the possible health risks posed
by chewing (Al-Yarisi 2012).
Khat in the Middle East
Regardless, khat consumption is now indisputably wide-
spread in Yemeni society, and the prevalence of khat
consumption in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, has been esti-
mated to be as high as 80 per cent for males and 50 per
cent for females (at age fifteen and above) (Basunaid et
al. 2008). Khat chewing has consequently been charged
with causing general problems for economic development
and public health (Wedegaertner et al. 2010: 735). A major
specific concern is the high demand for water resources
that khat growing requires. With 40 per cent of the potable
water in Yemen directed towards khat cultivation (Almas
A DAVEY / CC BY 2.0

Ethnopharmacology 132(3):
554-563.
Kalix, P. 1992. Cathinone,
a natural amphetamine.
Pharmacology and
Toxicology 70(2): 77-86.
— 1990. Pharmacological
properties of the stimulant
khat. Pharmacol Ther
48(3): 397-416.
— 1988. Khat: A plant with
amphetamine effects.
Journal of Substance Abuse
Treatment 5(3): 163-169.
Klein, A. et al. 2012. Chewing
over khat prohibition:
The globalisation of
control and regulation
of an ancient stimulant.
Legislative Reform of Drug
Policies (17). Amsterdam:
Transnational Institute.
Krikorian, A.D. 1984. Kat
and its use: an historical
perspective. Journal of
Ethnopharmacology 12(2):
115-178.
Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling
the social: An introduction
to actor-network-theory.
Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
— 1988. Science in action:
How to follow scientists and
engineers through society.
Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
& Scholz 2006), a feature in The Guardian reports that
Sana’a, ‘the fastest-growing capital in the world will run
out of economically viable water supplies by 2017’, such
is the heavy drain that khat growing has on the nation’s
water (Macleod & Vidal 2010). The concern centres on
economic growth, and accordingly regards the practice of
khat chewing as the crux of the problem.
Further on the centrality of development economics,
Weir writes (1985: 36): ‘Most economists prefer coffee…
because it might earn Yemen foreign currency’. Khat on the
other hand is unlikely to be a viable export and has been
generally condemned by development-oriented economists
(Weir 1985: 37). Khat has thus been critiqued as a com-
modity that might not be articulated into global flows and
markets, if not just because of the cultural receptivity that
chewing presupposes, then perhaps because of the legal
prohibitions on transporting psychoactive plant materials
across state borders. Not functioning as a global commodity,
khat cannot migrate along the same channels as legitimate
stimulant commodities, such as its comparator, coffee.
Health concerns
Aside from the role khat may play in damaging the eco-
nomic aspirations of Yemen, there has also been dispute
about the health impact of khat chewing. The principal
alleged dangers are mental illness (specifically psychosis),
cardiovascular disease, and oral health (gum disease and
oral abscesses), all of which are thought to be dangers
posed by chronic khat chewing. Surprisingly then, in the
2010 special edition of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology
entitled ‘The use and misuse of khat (Catha Edulis) in a
changing world: Tradition, trade and tragedy’, some of
these potential negative effects of khat chewing were
deemed inconclusive, particularly the putative link to car-
diovascular disease (Al-Motarreba et al. 2010). Moreover,
no causative relation to psychiatric disease was substanti-
ated: rather, it remains inconclusive whether khat actually
causes the same ‘neurocognitive deficit that have been
identified in previous studies of individuals who have been
chronic users of stimulants, such as amphetamines and
methamphetamines’ (Hoffmann & Al’Absi, 2010: 554). In
fact, the scientific and public health evidence shows that
the physical and mental health ‘risks’ of khat remain very
low (Klein et al. 2012: 3; Warfa et al. 2007).
Global response
Despite the scientific literature’s moderate position, khat
chewing still remains a political issue on the global stage,
as it has previously been identified by the World Health
Organization (WHO 2003; 2006) as a public health con-
cern of the Arabian peninsula region, broadly tying khat
consumption to the negative potential effects on the
‘social and economic life’ of its users (WHO 2006: 11).

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 4, AUGUST 2013 5


Fig. 6. Harm-dependence
relationships for a range of
recreational substances.
Macleod, H. & J. Vidal 2010.
Yemen threatens to chew
itself to death over thirst
for narcotic qat plant. The
Guardian, 26 February.
Mateen, F. J. & G. D. Cascino
2000. Khat chewing: A
smokeless gun? Mayo
Clinic Proceedings 85(11):
971-973.
Nutt, D et al. 2007.
Development of a rational
scale to assess the harm of
drugs of potential misuse.
The Lancet 369: 1047-1053.
Swains, H. Khat fight:
Harmless recreational drug
or a recruitment tool for
terrorists? The Independent
30 June 2012.
US Department of Justice
2003. Khat (Catha edulis).
Intelligence Bulletin 2003.
Product No. 2003-L0424-
002. Published May 2003.
Archived publication
accessed December 2012.
Varisco, D. M. 1986. On the
meaning of chewing: The
significance of qat (Catha
Edulis) in the Yemen Arab
Republic. International
Journal of Middle East
Studies 18(1): 1-13.
Warfa, N. et al. 2007. Khat
use and mental illness:
A critical review. Social
Science & Medicine 65(2):
309-318.
Wedeen, L. 2008. Peripheral
visions: Publics, power,
and performance in Yemen.
Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Wedegaertner, F. et al. 2010.
Motives for khat use and
abstinence in Yemen – a
gender perspective. Public
Health 10: 735.
6 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 4, AUGUST 2013
Discourse on khat chewing has reverberated across the
globe, and international development organizations, such
as the WHO (2003; 2006) and the World Bank (2007;
2012), are now committed to helping reduce khat consump-
tion. The World Bank explicitly (2007: i) recommends:
a set of economic and non-economic policy measures. These
include: increasing the tax burden; building public awareness;
incorporating training on the hazards of khat in the school
system; enforcing public policies aimed at discouraging khat
consumption (e.g. extension of working hours); closing knowl-
edge gaps and developing viable crop diversification programs.
Such measures are hoped to help ‘wean’ chewers off khat
APARTMENTO2 / DERIVED FROM NUTT ET AL 2007 / / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
(World Bank 2007: i).
With the forceful arguments against khat consumption
made by the WHO and World Bank over health concerns
and an economically-centred rationale of productivity
and development, further license is unavoidably lent to
the mainstream media to treat khat chewing as a lazy and
unhealthy form of time wasting. Moreover, publications
by the World Bank (2012: 1) furnish epistemic support to a
prohibitive stance on chewing, specifically by classifying
khat as a ‘narcotic’ substance.
‘Narcotic’, however, is technically an incorrect category
placement in the strict sense of Western pharmacology,
which decisively taxonomizes khat’s primary bioactive
compound, cathinone, as an amphetamine-like compound
(Graziani et al. 2008; Kalix 1988; 1990; 1992). Based on
its biological effects on physiological function at least,
khat is far more closely related to the prescription medica-
More direct criticisms have been laid at khat consumption tions Adderall and Ritalin2 , which are routinely prescribed
in Somaliland, where khat plays a prominent role in the to children – and heavily marketed to their parents – in
social life of most men. Indeed, in Somaliland the importa- the US. But with khat not being a recognized medicine,
tion of fresh khat leaves from neighbouring Somalia takes the comparison is necessarily muted. In this regard, the
up a large portion of Somaliland’s annual spending and is pejorative and possibly spurious labelling of khat as a
deemed a heavy burden on the economy, having already ‘narcotic’ inevitably associates khat with narcotics linked
had corrosive effects on the state’s governing abilities with entrenched social problems, such as heroin or opium.
(Hansen 2010). Hansen’s study (2010) reports that while I now explore the grounds for such a hasty comparison.
khat was found to strengthen male social networks and
provide an environment for peaceful political engagement, Chewing as a situated practice
chewing khat was found to lead to the breakdown of fami- To consider the practice of khat chewing from the position
lies. For families with a male member who chews khat, of its local chewers, I move to focus on a typical chewing
much of the family budget can be lost to the long hours of setting in Yemen, drawing from previous ethnographic
homosocial chewing. CBC News (2008) concurs, stating accounts. In so doing I hope to resurrect some of the here-
that ‘[Khat] does little to put food in bellies or bring in hard tofore unmentioned dimensions of khat chewing as an eve-
currency from abroad’. In the Somali case specifically, the ryday social practice.
criticism of khat is most strongly presented by ‘women’s In Yemen, khat chewing usually takes place in organ-
organizations and female politicians who argue that khat ized sessions (termed ‘chews’) where men gather to chew
destroys Somali men and leads to the neglect of children in a group. Khat ‘is used as a [temporal] marker to distin-
and domestic violence’ (Hansen 2010: 591). guish leisure time from work’ and is built into the rhythms
In the UK however, where khat is still legal, though of quotidian life; the traditional after-lunch chewing ses-
apparently not for long, Somali migrants meet and casually sion lasts until evening prayer at around 6pm, though
chew khat in ‘mafrishes’ which are commonly referred to ‘depending on the amount of khat consumed, the entire
as ‘Somali pubs’. However even these sanctioned spaces experience typically lasts between four to six hours, but
have not evaded the controversy, and the ‘mafrishes’ of the can drag on for longer’ (Klein et al. 2012: 2). During these
Peckham district of London have recently raised concern chewing sessions some sort of political deliberation or
on the basis that they might function as effective spaces for discussion is usually engaged in, the social configuration
the recruitment of terrorists (Swains 2012). of which is thought to foster individual democratic sub-
Regardless of the validity or invalidity of this particular jectivities and what might be considered the practice of a
claim, this potentiality succeeds to propel the controversy form of public reason (Wedeen 2008).
forward, and offers another insight into the socially net- Khat chews are thus widely considered by Yemeni
worked life of a globally contested object of concern. men to be socially generative spaces, in that they func-
Curiously though, the possibility of khat mediating ter- tion as nodes of male connectivity where strangers can
rorism might point towards deep international political meet through mutual contacts. Through open-ended
asymmetries. Indeed, Gezon & Totomarovario (2008) con- public discussions, private information may be openly
tend that discourses on recreational khat chewing practices shared, thereby making it ipso facto public information.
in Ethiopia, Kenya and Madagascar can be most strongly Chewing sessions thus connect men who disseminate
connected by a shared concern over ‘the hegemony of and synthesize news or opinion together. Moreover,
the western economic development model’ (Gezon & where particularly influential politicians, tribal leaders
Totomarovario 2008: 1), a model they regard as buttressed or respected community members are present, important
by khat’s incorporation into the ‘global rhetoric of the war political decisions may be made during the chewing ses-
on drugs’ (2008: 10). sion (Wedeen 2008: 114).
 affective and rational at once, nurturing political subjec-
tivities that are predicated on affective dynamics shared
amongst participants. Crucially though, these discussions
are mediated by, structured around, and sustained by, khat
consumption. The ‘chew,’ as a complex bundle of relations
thus functions somewhat similarly to the coffee-houses
and salons of the European enlightenment movement, and
as such, Wedeen concludes that the Yemeni khat chew
fulfils two of the criteria that Habermas (1991) posits as
essential to the constitution of a discursive ‘public sphere’:
‘citizens’ engagement in critical discussion and the medi-
ated reflexive role that such mini-publics play in helping to
produce the impersonal, audience oriented, broader public
of anonymous citizens’ (Wedeen 2008: 113). The socially
and politically generative potentialities of these gatherings
reveal that khat chews achieve more than unhealthy idling.
Rather, in this instance, khat can be seen to be instrumental
in bringing men more closely together, networking a form
of political consciousness with an organic democratic
activity.
Nonetheless, the example of the Yemeni khat chew is
not intended to imply that khat is an inherently democratic
entity ‘in its nature’. Rather, I want to gesture towards
the way the intrinsic properties of khat become realized
as a hybrid fusion of nature and culture, with the inalien-
able material properties of khat, such as its pharmacology,
nested within social fields coordinated by a particular
mode of consumption. I emphasize that khat retains the
capacity to be animated within many settings, each with
their shifting worlds of facts and social values. Depending
on khat’s location and how tightly it is embedded into local
regimes of knowledge and practice, khat may success-
ANNA FRODESIAK / PUBLIC DOMAIN

fully do a variety of things: aid study, mediate democracy,

enhance storytelling, promote idling etc. In this sense, the
fundamental essence of khat is inextricably entangled with
the cultural uses that authorize it, and I argue that khat
cannot be meaningfully discussed without recourse to its
social context.

Conclusion
Fig. 7. Man dividing khat The genre, or tone, of the chew can vary from casual, The khat polemic has thus far seen khat essentialized in
into bunches in preparation contingent and open-ended, to more ceremonial events, a set of universalizing claims: as a narcotic; a drain on
for a long evening of tea,
conversation and chewing. which can be recognized by the orientations of the partici- economic growth; a strain on family structures; a public
pants’ relative seating positions, where ‘seating positions health concern; the sign of democratic hope; and a poten-
correspond to statuses in the room’ (ibid: 123). Wedeen tial node for connecting militants. With these conversa-
offers a definition of a typical ‘chew’ as gatherings where tions situated in segmented discursive arenas with little
as many as several dozen people ‘meet to debate literary cross-talk, these perspectives remain important and rele-
matters, political life and social problems’ (2008: 104). vant, but relatively hermetic and univocal. To effectively
Weir, S. 1985. Qat in Yemen:
Consumption and social
While a session will initially open with individuals pro- examine the khat controversy as a complex anthropo-
change. London: British posing topics for discussion, often several suggestions logical problem, I argue, demands recognizing the social
Museum Publications. may be made before a topic is chosen and pursued. Wedeen relations that khat inhabits and animates as part of real
WHO 2006. Expert
identifies this liminal moment, involving the choice of lived-world experience, for the various sets of actors
Committee on Drug
Dependence. World Health discussion topics, as an ‘important aspect of democratic involved, within the various institutions and material
Organ Tech Rep Ser, i, practice and personhood’, seeing ‘lively disagreements relations they inform.
1-21, 23-24 passim. about issues of mutual public concern…to make worlds in I suggest that similar controversies might be more fruit-
WHO 2003. Expert
Committee on Drug
common’ (2008: 104) as an important aspect of democratic fully mapped by incorporating the diverse sets of perspec-
Dependence. World Health practice and participatory politics. tives that jointly stabilize their object of concern. Having
Organ Tech Rep Ser 915, In Wedeen’s final analysis, the khat chew is considered shown here how khat can function multifariously, from an
i-v, 1-26, back cover.
to bring strangers into physical, spatiotemporal and affec- economic policy concern to a powerful mediator of dem-
World Bank 2012. World
Bank’s response to tive proximity, and through the establishment of mutual ocratic discussion, I contend that it is precisely through
qat consumption in shared concerns and their contestation, makes subjective such oppositions that divergent political claims function
Yemen. Accessed online coalescence possible. In this reading, khat chews don’t just to inflate ‘the controversy’. Rigorous analysis of similar
December 2012 at: http://
siteresources.worldbank.
constitute drug-fuelled ramblings, but the ‘phenomenolog- issues thus demands attentiveness to a plurality of perspec-
org/INTYEMEN/ ical dimensions of participatory politics’, as Wedeen (ibid: tives, tracking the shifting role of the object of focus as it
Resources/YEMEN – 112) puts it, can alleviate interpersonal tensions between migrates from site to site, where it may in fact be doing
WorldBank_Response_to_
acquaintances, working out pre-existing problems and very different things.
QatConsumption.pdf
World Bank 2007. Yemen: disputes. I have shown that khat may be used recreationally for all
Towards qat demand The ‘chew’ thus consists of an assemblage of bodies and of the buzz and benefits it may afford the user, or indeed
reduction. Sustainable affects, situated and distributed, respectively. These gath- as a crutch for a host of political, economic and public
Development Department.
Middle East and North
erings can thus be viewed as providing a unique format health interventions. The jury is out as to the future of khat;
Africa Region. for democratic politics, displaying the quality of being meanwhile the controversy chews it up. l

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 4, AUGUST 2013 7