ABSTRACT
Background: Khat is a psychoactive plant with stimulant qualities that is a legal commodity in several nations on the Arabian Peninsula and in East Africa. However, khat is also used in diaspora settings in Europe and North America, where it is a criminalized substance and surrounded with controversy. This chapter focuses on khat use and its association with the Somali community in Sweden to analyze a case of ethnified intoxication.
Methods: I carried out 16 qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives from Somali civil society organizations in Malmö, Sweden and analyzed the material with an abductive approach.
Results: The interviewees resisted a common stereotyping of the Somali minority as a homogenous problematic ethnic collective burdened by khat use. They discussed both problematic and positive aspects of khat use and differentiated between khat use and khat abuse. Overall, the interviewees constructed the solutions to problematic khat use less in relation to the drug itself or to ethnicity and culture, and more to the socioeconomic situations of the users in a diaspora setting.
Conclusion: The association between khat use and Somali ethnicity and culture was resisted by the interviewees, but it also meant that they engaged in ethnic boundary-making since khat use has been thoroughly ethnified in Sweden. I suggest that reflection by scholars and practitioners is needed to avoid overly simplified explanations of khat use, and that historical cases of drug scares about the intoxicant use of ethnic and other minorities should inform current practices and policies.
