Research Catalog

Title

Leaf of Allah : khat & agricultural transformation in Harerge, Ethiopia, 1875-1991 / Ezekiel Gebissa.

Author

Gebissa, Ezekiel.

Publication

Oxford : James Currey ; Addis Ababa : Addis Ababa University Press ; Hargeisa : Btec ; Athens : Ohio University Press, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 210 p. : ill., maps; 22 cm.

Summary

"Khat is a psychoactive shrub, produced and marketed in the province of Harerge, Ethiopia, and widely consumed throughout North East Africa. It is now easily available in the large cities of the West." "In the late nineteenth century the main cash crop of Harerge was coffee. Today khat is the fastest-growing and the most profitable regional industry, involving millions of farmers, traders and other service providers. This study examines why farming families shifted from cultivating coffee and food crops to growing khat." "Demographic, market and political factors facilitated the emergence of khat as Harerge's leading agricultural commodity. This development increased the scale of unofficial cross-border trade in consumer goods." "The study also explores the consequences of the new cash crop for the regional economy as a whole, for farmer-state relations, for the nature and balance of local social relations, as well as for Harerge's physical, socioeconomic and political landscapes."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Eastern African studies

Uniform Title

Eastern African studies (London, England)

Subject

• Agriculture > economics
• Plants, Medicinal
• Khat > Hārergē Kifle Hāger
• Agriculture > Economic aspects > Hārergē Kifle Hāger
• Agriculture > Hārergē Kifle Hāger > History
• Agriculture > Social aspects > Hārergē Kifle Hāger
• Drug traffic > Hārergē Kifle Hāger
• Catha
• Ethiopia
• Hārergē Kifle Hāger (Ethiopia)
• Hārergē Kifle Hāger (Ethiopia) > History
• Hārergē Kifle Hāger (Ethiopia) > Rural conditions

Genre/Form

• History
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-204) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Introduction : social & historiographical contexts -- 2. The setting : regional geography & human landscape -- 3. Land & railway : structures of agriculture & trade : 1875-1935 -- 4. Production : the agrarian system, population growth & farming strategies : 1935-64 -- 5. Consumption & marketing : pastime, protest & political economy : 1935-64 -- 6. Export trade : constraints, control & contraband : 1964-74 -- 7. Domestic use & trade : social mobility, structures of distribution & self-sufficiency : 1964-74 -- 8. The khat boom : production & marketing in a controlled economy : 1974-91 -- 9. Khat & contraband : profits, professions & parallel markets -- 10. Conclusion : the dilemma of khat-based development -- App. A. Coffee & khat exports from Harerge : 1936-91.

ISBN

• 0852554818 (J. Currey : cloth)
• 085255480X (J. Currey : pbk.) :
• 082141559X (Ohio University Press : cloth)
• 0821415603 (Ohio University Press : pbk.)

OCLC

• 52919211
• SCSB-11947530

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library