Khat: the legal high of East Africa

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-21-2010 @ 4:35AM

Jamac said...

many khat cafes are run by women, some of whom smear their faces with khat paste as a kind of advertisement.

I love your reporting and I have been a keen follower, however, that women smean khat paste on their face for an advertisement, is completely wrong. I was thinking that you may have been misinformed or that you have added it for the sheer of sensualisation, but whatever the reason, what you have seen which you can rightly say looks like a khat paste is actually what we call Qasil, which of course crushed leaves that women use to restore their facial skin and so look beautiful. In other words its a beauty product that have similar effects like many facial products do.

Thanks

5-21-2010 @ 6:01AM

Sean McLachlan said...

Thanks for the information. I had several Somalis tell me it was khat paste. Were they just pulling my leg?

And no, I don't add anything for "sensualisation". I'm not some nineteenth century Orientalist.

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