Issue No 620

Somalis and the story of sugar
 

Sweet-toothed Somalis are the Horn of Africa's biggest consumers of refined sugar, with visitors to the Horn often astonished at the quantity of sugar the average Somali consumes. Every day, young and old drink copious cups of 'shaah' – a spiced milky tea made with cinnamon, ginger and cardamom and heavily saturated in sugar. An instant energy drink; nomads on foot adore it, and poems have even extolled shaah's health benefits. For those chewing khat, 'shaah' is turned into 'bigeeys,' another spiced tea with even more sugar. 
 
A Somali legend, likely apocryphal, encapsulates the Somali love for sugar. The story goes that a clan bought several bags of sugar from a trader and, loving its taste so much, decided to pour some into the village's water wells "so that our camels can produce sugary milk." But the wells are deep, and two men perish while mixing the well water with sugar. The bantering legend is also used to depict the clan as foolish.
  
Sugar has astonishingly varied uses in Somali society, with shaah far from the only nourishment saturated with sugar. Many love 'anjeero'-- a light pancake typically eaten in the morning. Anjeero can be eaten sweet or savoury; it is often served with goat liver, known as 'beer,' as well as sugar, honey, and ghee.
 
Somali's love of sugar dates back centuries, most likely a culinary influence from trade with the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman traditional 'halva' sweets were bartered across the Middle East and into Somalia, where they are still made today. Known as 'halwa' in Somalia, its ingredients and complex recipe are tightly guarded and passed down through the generations. Halwa's ingredients typically include whey, ghee, sugar, cardamom, saffron, and rose water, and is served as a dessert.
 
During Eid festivals, tonnes of halwa are distributed to children, and every diaspora Somali who visits Somalia must return with a packet of traditional halwa wrapped in palm leaves. The age-old question of which port city makes the best halwa has never been settled, with Kismaayo, Baidoa, and Malindi all claiming bragging rights.
 
We do not know exactly when sugar arrived in the Somali peninsula, but sugar cane cultivation originated in ancient India. Many words for sugar also find their roots in the Sanskrit word 'sarkara,' including the Arabic word for sugar, 'sukkar,' and Somali, 'sokor.' In the Mercantile Age, when the East Coast of Africa was at the centre of global trade routes, sugar became a commodity in high demand. Indian, Persian, and Arab merchants would trade sugar with frankincense, myrrh, rare birds, and ivory with communities along Somalia's coast.
 
Today, Somalis are not only sugar consumers—they are also the Horn's largest traders of the sweet stuff. Since the collapse of the Somali state in 1991, Somali ports have become major transit points for illicit sugar smuggling into East and Central Africa. Sugar, largely Brazilian, smuggled through Somalia is often cheaper than the sugar produced by millers in East Africa. The collapse of sugar mills in Kenya due to poor management and corruption has further boosted the demand for Somali sugar. While Kenyan officials have long chafed about the sabotaging of the local sugar industry, Somalis retort that their in-demand sugar sells at a competitive price.
 
The cross-border sugar trade is complex, involving shadowy barons with links to the political elite in Somalia and Kenya. Al-Shabaab and other armed actors in southern Somalia also generate handsome revenues from taxing lorries transporting sugar to Kenya. In Nairobi, there is a popular saying that "every tablespoon of sugar consumed in Kenya is taxed by Al-Shabaab."
 
While sugar may bind together meals and Somali hospitality, the side effects on people's health are not so rosy. In northern Kenya and the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia, public health officials have been conducting campaigns to raise awareness about the health risks of high sugar consumption with little success. Type II diabetes, often associated with high sugar intake, is sadly widespread in Somali communities in the Horn.
 
In many ways, sugar encapsulates much of Somali society and history. Transcending borders and lifestyles, sugar-based foodstuffs like halwa and anjeero tie together nomadic and diasporic communities alike. Halwa connects Somalia to its storied position on the eastern edge of Africa and the gateway to the Ottoman Empire and beyond. But sugar smuggling today also reflects the struggles of Somalia in the 21st century, and the grip Al-Shabaab holds over illicit trade in southern Somalia. While the advent of globalisation and mass-produced chocolate and sweets may have brought new products to Somalia's shores, there can be no replacement for the traditional sugary food that brings Somali families together.