Chapter 8

Fluid Merchants and Consumers:
Qāt and the Yemeni People
Reiko OTSUBO

I. Introduction
Qāt, whose fresh leaves produce a stimulant effect, is largely cultivated and consumed in Yemen andthe East African countries. In Yemen, few entertainments exist, so chewing qāt in the afternoon is very
popular.
If you visit a qāt market in Sana’a around noon, you will hear merchants shouting the names of the
qāt they purvey, such as ‘Hamdānī’, ‘Maṭarī’ and ‘Arḥabī’, all of which are the names of tribes. If you
are aware that Yemen is famous for its tribal structure, you may conclude that qāt merchants use theirtribal ties for their business and that Yemenis chew qāt with other members of their tribe. In this article,
these assumptions are shown to be incorrect: Qāt merchants are fluid in choosing their commodities, andqāt consumers are fluid in the company they keep, both inside and outside of Yemen.1
This section will discuss qāt and its place in Yemeni society. Section II will focus on how qātmerchants obtain and sell qāt. We pay special attention to asymmetrical information and explain that
establishing firm relationships is rather risky, which is unexpected, and that merchants do not dependon their blood relationships. In Section III, we compare qāt consumption in the 1970s and the 2000s,
showing that its use changed from centring on special, compulsory and collective events to ordinary, free
and individual refreshment. We will then go outside Yemen in Section IV to see how and with whom
Yemenis chew qāt. Qāt has the power to unite people, but this power sometimes goes beyond ethnicity
or nationality.
1. QātQāt is native to Ethiopia. It is not clear when it spread to Yemen, but its consumption was limited to therulers, nobles, and wealthy merchants for centuries.
The production and consumption of qāt began to increase in the 1970s in Yemen or, strictly
speaking, North Yemen2 at that time. Rural areas were short of male labourers because they travelled
to Saudi Arabia, where the economy was flourishing due to the rise in oil prices and the boom in the143The Arabian Peninsula: History, Culture, and Society

construction industry. Qāt was substituted for cereals and coffee, as it was much easier to produce. 3
Migrants sent remittances to their families living in the countryside, and this financial prosperity enabledrural people to construct feeder roads from their remote villages to the main roads. Mass out-migrationand domestic labour shortages caused the inflation of Yemeni wages in cities, which enabled people
to spend more money on non-essentials and caused a substantial shift towards a predominant cash
economy in both cities and rural areas. All these factors brought about an increase in the production andconsumption of qāt [cf. Weir 1985a: 20–22].
To chew qāt, one must go to a qāt market around noon. Qāt should be chewed fresh, and in Sana’a,
it can be bought after it has been harvested that morning. As qāt has no fixed price, one must bargain
with qāt merchants on the price.
In Yemen, qāt is consumed by men and women separately in social gatherings in the afternoon.
In English, we say ‘chew qāt’, but in Yemeni Arabic, they say ‘khazzan al-qāt’, meaning ‘storing’or ‘keeping qāt’. Qāt is kept in one of the cheeks and spit out at the end; it is not swallowed after
mastication.
In Sana’a, qāt gatherings are the most popular places for people to socialise. Coffeehouses arefamous as social places for men in the Middle East [Hattox 1985]. There are būfīs and qahwas4 in Sana’a,which are equivalent to maqhās in regular Arabic. There, men can speak with others over a cup of tea, sothey can be recognised as meeting places for men in Sana’a.5 However, they do not function as meeting
places like qāt gatherings. ‘If I would like to talk about a complicated problem with my friend, I will say
to him, “come to my house and chew qāt”’, said an informant.
There are various types of qāt, and it is impossible to tally the number of kinds of qāt sold in Sana’abecause there is no official classification. Aside from classification based on the production areas, asmentioned earlier, there are other classifications based on forms, colours and juiciness. Mainly threeforms exist: Qaṭal, rūs and rubaṭ. Qaṭal is only the leaves packed in plastic bags. Rūs refers to the top of
the twig. Rubaṭ refers to 1-metre-long twigs tied with vinyl tape. If the production area is the same, rubaṭ
is the most expensive, followed by rūs, and qaṭal is the cheapest. If you want to chew a large amount of
qāt within budgetary limits, you should buy qaṭal.
You should check the colours and juiciness if you are very sensitive to the qāt you chew. The
colours include white, red and blue, although different colours are often mixed and sold together. Qātwith a lot of water is called ‘baghara’, and qāt with little water ‘nazzy’, the latter for connoisseurs.
Qāt can be purchased according to one’s financial situation; qāt prices range from a half dollar to
one hundred dollars. Qāt cultivated only with rainwater and without chemicals is called ‘ṭabī‘ī’ and issold at a higher price. Qāt cultivated with chemicals tends to be cheaper.
In Yemen, the import and export of qāt is prohibited, so all the processes from cultivation to
consumption are completed within the country, which leads some economists to consider qāt an enemyof the Yemeni economy.6
Outside of Yemen, qāt is a commodity that is often imported and exported. Since the 1980s, qāt has
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been transported by air to Europe and North America due to the increasing numbers of Somali people
living there who are eager for it. Qāt is considered a symbol of national or ethnic unity or an identity
marker for qāt chewers inside and outside of their homelands [Varisco 1986; ACMD 2005]. Ethiopia and
Kenya make the greatest profit from exporting qāt [Anderson et al. 2007].
Many countries in Europe and North America have regarded qāt as an illegal drug. This is not a
pharmacological problem but rather a social one related to the Somali people who have escaped fromtheir prolonged civil war; however, many governments have made qāt a scapegoat to avert their eyesfrom social problems, such as poverty, unemployment and discrimination. Governments have banned
qāt—although it is still smuggled, as we will see—but the social problems have yet to be solved, and new
problems have appeared. These governments cannot trace qāt or understand the amount, the consumers
or the possibility that a crime group might control the sale of qāt.
2. Yemeni Tribes and Qāt
In Yemen, most areas where qāt is cultivated are tribal lands. Qāt sold in Sana’a is named after the
production areas, most of which are districts that correspond to tribal lands. For example, Hamdānī qāt
is named after Hamdān, a district and tribe on the northern side of Sana’a.
Tribal people are sedentary farmers rather than Bedouins, and farming is considered perfectly
honourable. They are known to be conservative and autonomous, and they do not want outsiders to comeonto their lands [Dresch 1989]. Those who go onto any tribal land without permission might be killedby the local people.
Therefore, it might seem that qāt merchants are from tribal lands, that they can obtain qāt fromtheir hometowns by relying on their blood relationships and that people chew qāt with those who share
blood relations with them. It is true that qāt merchants use their blood relationships when starting theirbusiness, but they can change their source and market of qāt easily. It is also true that qāt has the power
to unite the people who consume it; however, we will find that there are various means of consumption
inside and outside of Yemen.
3. Merits of Qāt for Producers
Before discussing the qāt trade, let us examine qāt production. There have been several critics of qāt,7but qāt producers are very positive about its cultivation because it has brought them many benefits.
Qāt is much easier to cultivate than any other crop, including coffee. This was particularly true of qātcultivation during the 1970s, when it was cultivated using rainwater and without chemicals. Now, qātrequires irrigation systems and chemicals, meaning it is no longer easier to cultivate than other crops,
although producers do not think it burdensome for them, as qāt brings them considerable profit.
An informant who cultivated qāt and other crops with his family told me that he now chews qāt
in the afternoon because he has earned enough money from cultivating it; previously, he had to workin the afternoon before cultivating qāt. Others told me that thanks to qāt they were able to send their
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children to university, pay for their family members to travel to Egypt for medical treatment and makea pilgrimage to Mecca.
The areas around and northward of Sana’a, where qāt is now extensively cultivated, were areas
where only subsistence crops, such as legumes and cereals, were cultivated with rainwater. There were
few cash crops, and qāt was the first cash crop for many producers. Qāt can be cultivated even in barren
areas where no crops can be cultivated, and it can be sold in a few years.
Areas where coffee can be cultivated are not so lucky, as qāt earns much more than coffee. The
quality of Yemeni coffee is good based on international standards, but a producer informed me that hewanted to stop cultivating coffee and shift to cultivating qāt to earn more money because cheaper coffee
was imported and sold at a grocery shop in his village. There are activities designed to promote speciality
coffee in Yemen using social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram;8 however, it is difficult
for all coffee producers to enjoy the benefits while maintaining the quality of the coffee they produce,
which requires considerable labour. Qāt is much easier to grow and is more lucrative.

II. Merchants and the Qāt Market
1. Merchants and Producers
The distribution channels of qāt are very effective in Yemen. It is harvested in the early morning, soldin the markets around noon, and consumed in the afternoon. The entire process is completed within a
few hours. Between a qāt producer and a buyer are one or two merchants. The government and privatecompanies intervene little in the process, and the only reason qāt is distributed in such a short amount oftime is that both qāt producers and merchants want to sell it when it is as fresh as possible.
As mentioned, qāt is cultivated in tribal areas where people are known to be conservative andautonomous. Thus, one might think that qāt merchants are from tribal lands and that they use their blood
relationships to secure their commodities.
It is true that qāt merchants, who are mostly males in Sana’a, take advantage of their blood
relationships when starting their business. Their relatives may take them to a qāt market and teach them
how to obtain it, or they may go to a qāt market in their hometowns where their relatives sell it.
After a while, merchants may get to know the producers from whom they purchase their qāt.
Maintaining relations with producers allows merchants to obtain qāt quicker and cheaper, and producers
may even give credit if the merchants do not have enough money to purchase it at first, although qātmerchants must pay in cash. This makes the merchants clients of the producers.
Qāt producers want to build firm client ties with as many merchants as possible: the more clients
they have, the steadier their income. However, being a client of a qāt producer is rather risky for a qātmerchant, as the quality of qāt can easily be influenced by weather, precipitation, chemical fertiliser use,
agrochemicals and water on the fields. Even within the same qāt field, the qāt of today is not the same as
it was yesterday. To maintain the quality of the qāt they purchase, merchants tend to be chance customers
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or acquaintances of as many qāt producers as possible, so as not to build firm client ties.
Merchants mainly obtain qāt from three places: directly from qāt producers, in the qāt market nearproduction areas and in the qāt market in the city. Many merchants choose the first two options, whilevery few choose the third.
Three cases are presented below to demonstrate how each qāt merchant has his own way ofobtaining qāt. They can choose the qāt that they trade as they like, without being bound by blood
relationships. The merchant names used below are pseudonyms.
[Case 1]
Mudarres came to Sana’a when he was a high school student and began selling qāt with his friend
from the same village in Dhamar Province. At first, he obtained qāt in his village, which was a twohour drive from Sana’a. He then changed his qāt market and the kind of qāt he sold. Now, he tradesin Arḥabī because he thinks that its taste is good and its quality is excellent; he not only loves it
himself, but his consumers do also. The market is in the Arḥab District, which is much closer. He
obtains several kinds of Arḥabī from the producers he knows. A qāt merchant he happened to know
at a qāt market in Sana’a taught him about the market.
[Case 2]
Kawkabani changes the qāt he sells every few months throughout the year. He sells Ḥaymī, Maṭarī,Ḥushayshī, Sufyānī and Ṣaʿdī in that order. He obtains Ḥaymī and Maṭarī from producers at a qātmarket near the production areas, Ḥushayshī from qāt merchants at a qāt market in the production
area and Ṣaʿdī from qāt merchants in a market in Sana’a. He deals both with those he knows andthose he does not.
[Case 3]
Thani gets one kind of Maṭarī or Ḥaymī throughout the year from a qāt market near the production
area from any producer who sells the type he wants, and he trades with only one producer at a time,buying a large amount of qāt at once. There are some producers he knows well, but he does notprioritise them.
Merchants have several choices in terms of obtaining qāt based on the production area; where toobtain it; its forms, colours, juiciness and kinds; and whom to deal with. There is no perfect way for amerchant to obtain qāt. The means of obtaining qāt can vary depending on the merchant’s own tastes
and those of their buyers.
2. Asymmetric Information in the Qāt Market
When it comes to selling, qāt merchants want to build firm ties with as many buyers as possible: the147

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more clients they have, the steadier their income. The same is true for buyers. If they want to maintainthe quality of the qāt they buy, it is better for them not to be clients of particular qāt merchants but rather
to be chance customers or acquaintances of as many qāt merchants as possible.
Let us now consider asymmetric information. Generally, in bazaar economies, merchants are
infamous for the lies they tell. They tend to lie to the producers about market conditions and to buyers
about the merchandise they sell to them. Merchants have more information than producers and buyers[Fancelow 1990].
In the qāt market, the most important point is whether chemical fertilisers, agrochemicals, andwater are used. Many consumers love ‘organic’ qāt, and it is said that producers lie to merchants andthat merchants lie to buyers about this information.
However, lying about the quality of qāt is difficult. Buyers are sensitive to the qāt they chew everyday. If a buyer chews qāt and notices that it is not what he wanted, he considers himself cheated by themerchant and will never buy qāt from that merchant again. Rumours of the dishonesty of merchants
and producers and of the subpar qāt dishonest producers cultivate will spread around the qāt gatherings,
causing the price of qāt to fall.
Information about the quality of qāt is more important for economic subjects in the qāt market thaninformation about market conditions, which qāt producers and buyers can easily access. The relative
level of quality-related information is as follows: Producers have the most amount of information,
followed by merchants, and buyers have the least information.
Because of the uncertainty of qāt quality, the weak actors (i.e. the merchants and buyers) tend to act
fluidly towards the strong actors (i.e. the producers and merchants) in order to become chance costumers
or acquaintances. This leads the strong actors to also act fluidly, as they would like to build firm client
ties with the weak actors, even though they know the weak actors are fluid. In this way, relationships
between the economic subjects in the qāt market are not firm, sustainable or given. They fluctuate daily
in the same way that the quality of qāt changes daily.
While qāt merchants and buyers are both weak, the former act more fluidly than the latter. It is muchriskier for merchants to prioritise client ties over quality. Merchants must maintain the quality of the qāt
they sell, and if consumers change their tastes, then the merchants also change the kinds of qāt they offer.
Producers may sell their qāt to other merchants who buy larger amounts of it at higher prices. Natural
disasters, for example, can cause damage to qāt fields, and merchants may no longer have a source ofqāt. Maintaining firm client ties is risky for merchants, who must always seek out new qāt producers.
On the other hand, it is beneficial for buyers to depend on their client ties if they do not pay too
much attention to the quality of the qāt. If you are very rich and buy qāt from a special merchant, there
is a high probability that you can get the quality you want every day.
It goes without saying that economic subjects in the qāt market, even if fluid, need to be honest withthose they deal with. Among them, merchants are the most fluid yet the most honest actors.
Merchants are the weak actors when buying qāt from producers and the strong actors when selling148

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qāt to buyers. When buying qāt, merchants avoid being tied to any client and attempt to make moreacquaintances and remain chance customers. On the other hand, when selling qāt, merchants want tobuild firm client ties with as many buyers as possible and then offer many services to those buyers. As
they know that buyers are also fluid, they need to pay attention to acquaintances and chance customers
as well.
Merchants must be honest with producers about payment and honest with buyers about the qātquality. It is true that there are merchants who lie; however, it is not easy for such a merchant to remaina merchant for long.

III. Consumers Inside Yemen
In this section, we will examine the changing meaning of qāt chewing by comparing consumption in the
1970s with the 2000s. We point out that the use of qāt changed from centring on special, compulsory
and collective events to ordinary, free and individual refreshment.
1. Qāt Chewing in the 1970s
Regarding the situation during the 1970s, three words were used to explain qāt consumption according
to the anthropologists who did research at that time: mafraj, kayf and al-sā‘a al-sulaymānīya. We shall
examine qāt gatherings in the 1970s based on these three words.
(1) Mafraj
There are few public spaces for chewing qāt,9 and thus people mainly gather to chew qāt in their houses.
A room called the mafraj was the main venue for a qāt gathering10 in the 1970s. A mafraj usually refers
to a small room on the top of the house [cf. Barakāt 1992]. Many houses in Old Sana’a are four- or
five-storey buildings, and the lower storeys have smaller windows for reasons of security and limits ofarchitectural techniques. A mafraj on the top floor, however, has larger windows and commands a lovely
view, although it is very small. It is also furnished with luxurious furniture, often made of velvet.
In Old Sana’a, not every house has a mafraj, which depends on architectural structure andeconomic power. In areas other than Old Sana’a, a mafraj is on the top floor if the building is multistorey[Stevenson 1985: 17; Weir 1985a: 111] and has a similar interior [Gerholm 1977: 177]. It is considered atrue joy to chew qāt and have a pleasant chat while admiring the scenery, such as the houses and gardens
spread out below and the changing colours of the sky in the distance.
In fact, people sometimes chew qāt alone in places other than mafrajs, such as shop owners chewing
in their own shops or taxi drivers driving their cars, although these are regarded as exceptions [Gerholm
1977: 179; Stevenson 1985: 17; Varisco 1986: 10]. This is because qāt should be chewed communally ina mafraj; chewing qāt alone and in private is an anti-social act, and participation in qāt gatherings was
obligatory [Weir 1985a: 109, 147].
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The Arabian Peninsula: History, Culture, and Society(2) Kayf
Many studies have called the effect caused by chewing qāt euphoria. Weir and Kennedy call the state ofmind ‘kayf’ in Arabic. According to Weir, kayf is a state that is reached an hour after chewing qāt. It is anelevation in mood during which the chewer feels not only optimistic, confident and active but also alertand highly attuned to the subjects of the conversation. Some who chew a substantial amount in a shorttime became so animated that a kind of logorrhoea occurs; their tongues cannot keep pace with theirthoughts, which creates a disconnected quality to their speech [Weir 1985a: 41]. According to Kennedy,
kayf is a good state of mind that those who chew qāt want to reach. Because of such variables as thegrade of qāt and the amount chewed, kayf is not always achievable. The principal qualities of experiencethat informants identified for us as constituting kayf were increases in alertness, ability to concentrate,
the flow of ideas, contentment, confidence and friendliness [Kennedy 1987: 111–112]. While there aredifferences in the nuances between Weir and Kennedy, they have much the same meaning: the favourable
effects of chewing qāt. The effects are similar to those of a stimulant, and it has been inferred that theeffects are due to cathinone, which is contained in qāt and whose chemical formula is similar to that ofamphetamine.
(3) Al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya
As mentioned, qāt has been assessed negatively, while anthropologists tend to find positive conclusions.
The exchange of information11 and the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of social relations
during the gatherings are positively evaluated. At the gatherings, people discuss a wide range of
topics, including politics, economics and theology. Politicians reach political agreements during qāt
gatherings. A woman who is seeking a bride for her son can find her or ask other women to help her at thegathering.12 Qāt gatherings are an important means of welcoming strangers and household members into
the community when they have been away for long periods of time, for example, on pilgrimages, trading
expeditions, working in Saudi Arabia or in government posts elsewhere in Yemen. A qāt gathering marks
the assimilation of an individual into a new tribe. It could also play a part in the restoration of normal
relations between tribes after they have been suspended by political or legal disputes [Makhlouf 1979:
27; Swanson 1979: 40; Weir 1985a: 125–128; Kennedy 1987: 236].
Al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya13 is symbolic of the positive aspects of these gatherings. When you chewqāt, you can have a lively discussion with people at the beginning, and then after a noisy one or twohours comes a calm. The noise that existed a little while before ceases, and people turn inward in theirminds instead. This time of contemplation and rumination is called al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya, which evokes
unity between the people there [Gerholm 1977: 178; Stevenson 1985: 19; Weir 1985a: 41–42; Varisco
1986: 5–6; Kennedy 1987: 91–92; Al-Motarreb et al. 2002: 406].
(4) Qāt as a symbol of unity
Although there is room for doubt that the similar expressions of al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya are repeated,
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and that the time of silence is brought about only by the effect of qāt, this sense of unity symbolises qāt
in the 1970s. Qāt is described as a symbol of unity. Mafraj is a place to confirm the unity of membersof a community by chewing qāt and experiencing kayf and al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya together. Community
members should participate in these gatherings, and non-participation is regarded as an anti-social
behaviour. Qāt should be consumed by all members of a community, not by an individual. Needless tosay, ‘members’ means only men, excluding women. Women were invisible at that time, especially formale researchers.
2. Qāt Chewing in the 2000s
Based on my own data, collected in 2003,14 qāt consumption and its meanings have changed. Now, notonly mafraj but also other rooms are used for gatherings, and the workplace is a common area for men tochew qāt. Qāt chewers feel relaxed and energetic rather than kayf. Some men and women love to chewqāt alone. You can quit chewing qāt if you want more time to work, or you can spend more money andtime on things other than qāt. Qāt has become a kind of private refreshment, and those who want to use
it in that way do not seek al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya.
Compared with the 2000s, qāt chewing in the 1970s was a special event, like a wedding or Eid,
whereas now, qāt is not special but an ordinary habit.
According to a survey from 2003, the majority of respondents answered that they chew qāt in ahouse, be it their own or a friend’s. Only one respondent answered ‘dīwān’, and no respondent used‘mafraj’, signalling that mafraj is no longer an important place for qāt.
In Sana’a, where segregation of the living space based on the sexes is rigid, men and women usuallychew qāt separately.15 Some houses offer rooms for qāt gatherings for both sexes and others only for
one sex.
As mentioned, while mafraj is a room for qāt gatherings, there are other rooms used for qātgatherings, such as the dīwān, a drawing room, and the makān, a living room.16 The mafraj, dīwān andmakān have similar interiors; mattresses are placed around the room, with cushions along the walls.
People sit on the mattresses around the room, and the centre of the room is used as a place for a water
pipe (madāʿa ) or a temporary repository for the branches and leaves that are not suitable for chewing.
There are other places to chew qāt than houses. The survey referred to above was answered by men,nearly half of whom chew qāt at their workplaces. Many companies and government and municipal
offices forbid workers to chew qāt on duty, and therefore, most men who chew at workplaces are nighttime factory workers, shopkeepers and craftsmen.
According to a survey in 2003, many people answered that they chewed qāt with their friends,
family members and business associates (multiple answers). There were more who answered, ‘withfriends (aṣdiqāʾ, aṣḥāb)’ than who answered ‘with family members’ or ‘with business associates such ascolleagues (zumalāʾ ), bosses (mudarāʾ ) and workers (ʿummāl)’. ‘Family members’ refers to immediate
and close family members, such as ‘my wife’, ‘my husband’ and ‘mother-in-law living together’, rather
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than ‘family’ in a general sense. It should be pointed out that there were no answers mentioning tribes
or tribal members.
There are many people who chew qāt alone, most of whom also answered that they chew qāt with
their friends and family members. However, some always chew qāt alone. Elders—men who entrust
their jobs to their sons and women who entrust their housework to their daughters and the wives of theirsons—often chew qāt alone in their own rooms. Many men chew qāt alone while tending their storesor doing manual labour. Women chew qāt alone in the house while taking care of their young children.
When considering where and with whom to chew qāt, we find that there are not many men who
enjoy qāt every day with their favourite persons in the house; there are men who cannot chew qāt on
weekdays because of their jobs, men who chew qāt only a few hours after lunch and men who chewqāt at their workplaces with their business associates. Chewing qāt with business associates in theworkplace, however, was not noted in the ethnographies of the 1970s. Chewing qāt alone was considered
an anti-social act in the 1970s, but now it is not disfavoured, at least in Sana’a, and chewing qāt is a kindof private refreshment; therefore, people do not need al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya.
Few people change the places where they chew qāt and people they chew it with every day, andthere are not many who rigidly keep to the same place and companions. Most have a few places andseveral acquaintances to chew qāt with. People are more variable than places, and friends are morecommonly shared with than family members, although this tendency is more applicable to men than towomen.
There are quite a few people who participate in gatherings without qāt. Chewing qāt is notcompulsory when attending gatherings. You can enjoy talking with a cup of tea and some sweets servedby the host. Participants without qāt were not reported in the 1970s.
People feel relaxed and become energised after gatherings. Conversations are important, but not
all themes are serious and can be rather ordinary, and small matters are spoken about. Sometimes aproblem, be it individual or social, may be discussed among the chewers to be solved, which is not what
they want every day nor what happens every day. They often watch television during the gatherings.
Some play with cell phones or talk to friends over their telephones. If the gathering has a large numberof participants, they divide into groups and talk. A sense of unity is not required.

IV. Consumers Outside Yemen
1. Yemenis in Ethiopia
In this section, we turn to how Yemenis abroad chew qāt. It should be noted that qāt is a legal refreshment
in Ethiopia, like in Yemen, but it is an illegal drug in the UK and Holland. The names of the cities where
I conducted the research are pseudonymous in order to protect personal privacy.
The Yemenis I interviewed in the Ethiopian cities N, J and D were descendants of common people.17
Their ancestors came to Ethiopia because of hardship in their homelands at the beginning of the last152

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century, and they worked as manual labourers at first. After they bought property and got better jobs, theyexperienced oppression. Most Yemenis living in Ethiopia are self-employed and speak several languages,
and their relatives have left the country in search of better lives.
The way qāt is consumed in Ethiopia is different from how it is done in Yemen. In Ethiopia qāt isswallowed, whereas in Yemen, as previously noted, qāt is kept in one of the cheeks and spit out in theend. Yemenis in Ethiopia consume qāt in the Ethiopian manner.
Most Yemeni people in cities N and J are self-employed and do business with Ethiopians. They haveno chance to gather as a Yemeni community. They consume qāt with their families or alone, mainly on
weekends. For them, qāt is not a symbol of ethnic unity but a form of recreation.
Yemenis in cities N and J are too busy to enjoy qāt every day. They open their shops early in themorning and close them at night. They eat lunch and pray in turns. In Yemen, however, shopkeepers
close the shops to eat lunch at their homes and chew qāt in their shops; in Ethiopia, shopkeepers workwithout breaks and do not consume qāt while working.
In city D, however, qāt is consumed in a manner similar to that found in Yemen, except for the
Ethiopian manner of swallowing it. A Yemeni offers a room for qāt and after lunch his friends come to
the room. They sit on the mattresses put around the room. Some chat and watch television, some playwith their smartphones, and others concentrate on their tasks. Some just come to chat for a while withoutchewing qāt. The owner of the room is Yemeni, but the other members are all Ethiopians from different
ethnic groups. Their common language is Arabic or, strictly speaking, Yemeni Arabic,18 and they also
speak Amharic, Somali, Oromo and Harari. Qāt unites people beyond ethnicity.
There are Yemenis in the city, and the owner knows them very well, but they do not come to theroom every day. The room is for the owner’s friends, not for Yemenis in general.
2. Yemenis in the UK and Holland
In Western countries, qāt was a scapegoat for immigration and refugee problems. Governments banned
qāt and classified it as a dangerous drug without scientific judgement [ACMD 2005, 2013]. The UK and
Holland are, as is well known, famous for their tolerant attitudes towards drugs. The two countries wereamong the last in Europe to ban qāt. Finally, the Dutch government banned qāt in 2012, and the UK did
so in 2014. This is not because of a pharmacological problem but rather to avoid becoming hubs for qāt
smuggling. Therefore, I will demonstrate the situation in the two countries before and after prohibition.
I interviewed Yemenis in London and in three cities in Holland.
There are many Yemenis living in London,19 although there is no Yemeni Street or Yemeni District;they live widely scattered around the city. Before prohibition, those who loved qāt chewed it daily. Theybought qāt imported from Ethiopia and Kenya and sold by Somali merchants at shops such as grocery
stores in Arab Streets. They chewed qāt with their friends, most of whom were Yemenis.
Now, they can get smuggled qāt, fresh or dry, if they dare to, and they do not mind the high prices.
Dry qāt is cheaper and less effective, but they enjoy the atmosphere.
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In Holland, there was a large qāt market near the airport, and qāt was distributed to the cities bymerchants; most qāt came from Ethiopia and Kenya. Qāt was sold directly from qāt merchants, mostof whom were Somalis, to buyers. There were very few opportunities to buy qāt in shops. After theprohibition, it became difficult to obtain qāt, but some Yemenis know about smuggled qāt, fresh and dry,and if you call a merchant he will bring it to you, although the price has increased.
In city A, there were no opportunities to gather as a Yemeni community, although there are quite afew Yemenis living there. They chewed qāt with their friends. Since prohibition, some obtain smuggled
qāt and chew it secretly, while others quit qāt and enjoy other pleasures.
In city B, there were rooms specifically rented for qāt consumption, and those who consumed qātcame in the evenings on weekdays and in the afternoons on weekends. There were not only Yemenis but
also Somalis, Ethiopians, Sudanese and Dutch. They enjoyed qāt, chewing or swallowing, while chattingin Dutch, which is their common language, smoking and watching television. Qāt unites people beyond
nationality.20 The rooms were only for men, and if a woman wanted to chew qāt, she stayed home andchewed it with her friends. After prohibition, the rooms were closed. Some qāt lovers enjoy smuggled
qāt in their houses, and some gave up qāt and found other recreations.21
In city C, there are several Yemeni families as well as single Yemeni men, and on weekends, theyused to gather at separate houses for men and women. Some chewed qāt and others did not, chatting
for several hours. Now qāt is illegal; however, they still come together on weekends using social media
networks.

V. Conclusion
The qāt sold in Sana’a comes from tribal lands, but the merchants do not depend on their tribal
relationships. They can change the kinds of qāt and the places and producers they obtain qāt from. They
do not want firm relationships when getting qāt, while they do want firm ones when selling it, which does
not occur because the buyers do not want firm ones with them. The relationships among the economic
subjects are flexible and fluid.
If you are lucky and have a blood relationship with a successful and rich man, you can use it;
however, this is not necessary. In other words, the qāt business is for those who do not have powerfulrelatives to depend on. With thirty dollars, you could start a qāt business. You do not need a shop or astorehouse to keep qāt, for you should sell qāt on the day you get it, and you do not need a licence tosell it. It is easy to be a qāt merchant, but it is not easy to be a successful merchant, for you have to lookfor qāt producers who cultivate the kind you want and buyers who always come to you. You must alsocollect information on the situation in the production areas, the types of qāt that are becoming popularand unpopular and so on. Even if you have a relative who can cultivate qāt very well, it is risky to relyon him alone.
In Yemen, qāt was a symbol of unity in the 1970s, and it has become a kind of private refreshment.
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You can chew qāt alone or quit chewing it if you want, which was not allowed in the 1970s.
Now, qāt is one form of recreation that still has the power to unite people, and this power sometimes
goes beyond ethnicity and nationality. This power is not peer pressure, which was found in the qātgatherings of the 1970s in Yemen. Now, you may chew qāt as you like if you wish. The Yemenis I
interviewed chew qāt not to maintain their identity as Yemenis, but for individual refreshment.
During the Arab Spring, Yemeni protesters stayed in tents set up in Tahrir Square in the centre of
Sana’a, discussing the future of Yemen with their mouth full of qāt, and in the morning, they joined
anti-government demonstrations.
Qāt has the power to unite people, but this power is not compulsory. Yemenis gather with or without
qāt if they want to. They do not need it in order to maintain their identity, even though they are far awayfrom their homeland.
The prolonged political instability at home and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced people in
Yemen to face hardships. There, qāt merchants have just appeared who use social media networks todeliver qāt directly to consumers, avoiding personal contact in the market. Qāt is not essential for life,and yet, it loosely unites people—those who love it and those who do not.

Notes
1

Sections I, II and III are based on Otsubo [2017], IV is based on Otsubo [2019]. Research in the UK and Holland
was funded by JSPS.

2

North Yemen and South Yemen were unified in 1990.

3

It has often been pointed out that qāt was substituted for coffee [Zabarah 1982: 12; Stevenson 1985: xiv], although,as far as I know, Ḥarāz [Gerholm 1977: 53–56] is the only concrete case where qāt was substituted for coffee. It istrue that the conditions for qāt cultivation are similar to those of coffee, but they are not the same, and qāt is moreresistant to drought and frost damage [Weir 1985b: 75]. Soil which is suitable for qāt is not always suitable forcoffee [Otsubo 2000] and, as a plant, qāt is much stronger than coffee to the extent that coffee plants nearly diedwhen they were planted in the same field, as qāt roots drew considerable nutrition from the soil [Otsubo 2017]. As
for the case where qāt was substituted for cereals, see Weir [1985b: 74–76]. Both Kennedy [1987] and Kopp [1987]
refer to this change, but they do not specify the areas.

4

Būfī is a kind of coffeehouse where tea, fresh juice and light meals such as sandwiches are served. Qahwa is where
only drink is served. As far as I know, no coffee is served at the būfī or qahwa.

5

A woman can go there to quench her throat, but she will not stay there long to talk with her friends or family.

6

Economists prefer coffer to qāt, for the former can be exported. We may calculate how much Yemen would earn
if all the qāt cultivated in Yemen were exported, and if all the qāt were switched to coffee and all the coffee were
exported based on the data of CSO [2005] and Anderson et al. [2007: 166]. The former is £ 4,248,965,000 (≒YR
1,274,689,500,000), and the latter is $ 118,357,615.8 (≒YR 23,671,523,100). Exporting qāt would be much more‘economic’, contrary to economists’ expectations.

7

Qāt has a bad influence upon families, family budgets and the Yemeni economy [Zabarah 1982: 12], and bad
effects on human bodies such as insomnia and lack of appetite [Swanson 1979: 40; Kennedy 1987], but many otherdiseases which are thought to be caused by qāt are almost all refuted by ACMD [2013].

8

Regarding Qima Coffee, see https://www.qimacoffee.com/

9

There are lūkandas in Sana’a, cheap hotels with dormitories where men staying in Sana’a temporarily enjoy qāt
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and water pipes, but it is not common for people living in Sana’a to go there to enjoy them.
10

There are several Arabic words which mean a gathering for qāt in the afternoon. Jalisa and majlis mean ones forseveral men, while a larger gathering for men is called maqyal, and for women tafriṭa. I have seldom heard jalisa
and majlis strictly distinguished, although maqyal and tafriṭa are.

11

Weir said that men who heard news at qāt parties told their wives the information [Weir 1985a: 125]. I heard the
opposite in Sana’a; women heard news at qāt gatherings and then told their husbands. Couples participate in qātgatherings separately and after the gatherings exchange information, which sometimes allows them to gather much
more information than if they were to attend the same gathering.

12

Some Yemeni men told me that it was shameful for a man to ask any man about his daughter’s bridegroom, makecontact with the candidate or talk to him about his daughter.

13

Al-sāʿa al-sulaymānīya is often translated as ‘Solomon’s Hour’, but some of my informants denied that.

14

The survey was carried out on men and women over 14 living in Sana’a. In total, 200 questionnaire forms weredelivered, 122 of which were collected and completed by 95 men and 27 women. Most of the questionnaire’squestions were not multiple-choice but descriptive, which restricted respondents to those who can read and write
well. Male respondents were craftsmen, shop keepers, merchants, workers at factories and government officials.
Most of the women were the wives or sisters of the male respondents. Nine of the 27 women worked and many ofthem were government officials. Women’s literacy is not always related to their family’s economic strength, but wealso recognise the female respondents as middle-class citizens, for they have the ability to answer the questions.
Interviews were conducted with some of the respondents covering the results of the questionnaire. We may say thatthe results of the research reflect the present situation of middle-class citizens in Sana’a.

15

It does not matter that one chews qāt with one’s spouse or one’s sibling of the opposite sex, the latter of which is
not very common.

16

Dīwān corresponds to a drawing room, furnished with luxurious furniture like the mafraj, but much wider than it.
In Sana’a, outside Old Sana’a, most houses—most of which are one to two storeys—do not have a mafraj but dohave a dīwān. A living room is called a makān and is used by the family every day.

17

Sayyids, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, started to leave Yemen for East Africa in the sixteenth century.
There are non-sayyids, or common Yemeni people, who came to Africa around the beginning of the twentiethcentury. They worked as manual labourers during the construction of the harbors and railways, for the great powers
had expanded into East Africa.
Yemenis had a hard time there for decades, harder than during Italian control [1935–41]; the Italians thought Arabpeople were more sophisticated than any other ethnic group in Ethiopia and promoted the construction of mosques,
and Mecca pilgrimages. During the era of Haile Selassie I [1930–1974], the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
was established as the state religion in 1955, and the rights of Muslims were taken away. When the Dergue came
to power in 1974, Yemeni merchants had a hard time, for the government was Marxist-Leninist; merchants wereconsidered exploiters and the enemies of peasants, and their estates were confiscated.
In 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power, but most Yemenis had
escaped from Ethiopia, leaving for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Western Europe, North America, Australia andYemen. Thus, when I visited Ethiopia in 2016 and conducted research in cities N, J and D, there were 5–6 families
in each city. The cities had a large Muslim population and many Yemenis and now they have a large Muslim
population but few Yemenis.

18

In city D, adult men working in the market speak Arabic, while women do not. There must have been many
Yemenis living in the city for Arabic to still be a common language.

19

Yemenis started to leave their homeland for the UK since the 1890s. They worked as sailors and then settled towork at factories at the harbors in places like Cardiff, Liverpool and South Shields. They were manual labourers
and stayed at the bottom of the social classes [Halliday 2010].

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20

An informant in city B told me that he did not chew qāt in a qāt room, but rather in his house with his friends. There
were no rules where to consume qāt, and you could chew qāt as you liked.

21

I have never heard of alcoholic drink as an alternative to qāt. It can be obtained much more easily and cheaply in
the UK and Holland, but it cannot be their choice.

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