Saturday 9 April 2011

Chewing the fat with some chat

ANDU INTERNET CAFÉ

528 Kingsland Road

Misir wat, kik alecha, atakit wat,
inerja and a spicy tea


When I first noticed Andu I wasn’t sure if it served food or not as although it had a couple of visible tables and chairs, one side of the room was given over to four computers along a thin piece of benching. The notice on the window says ‘we sell Ethiopian food’ but none is on display, nor is there any kind of menu. However, since having popped in to check I know they do serve food, but there is no menu, it just depends what has been cooked that day. I arrange to go with a couple of friends as I feel self conscious about eating in such a small place on my own, nervous about what I might get, and about eating it in the correct way. On meeting them I feel a little like a cultural tourist as I walk them round the corner to Andu. We enter the small space, which is busy, with both tables occupied. The owner gets up from one of them and asks the other two men to give up their seats for us, we protest but he is adamant. The two men move to the bench outside the shop and continue to chat. The owner remembers me from last week and asks what we would like. We say we don’t really know and he suggests he brings a dish out to see if we like it. We decide to all eat vegetarian and suggest that he just brings us three of what he recommends to make it easier. I ask for Ethiopian tea also.

Now we are seated I can take in my surroundings more. The décor is eclectic—a plaque with a stag in some trees, a Chinese painting, some African carvings, a hanging basket with plastic flowers, a large cuddly toy koala bear wearing a straw trilby, a couple of England flags of the type people attached to their cars during the world cup, and a picture of Haile Selassie.



I realise the room has a screen dividing it, and just behind it is another seating area, with benches, cushions and low tables. A slightly unsteady, elderly man wanders in with a red Nike baseball cap and a large, half drunk bottle of whisky in his pocket. He goes to sit in the rear room, and proceeds to wander in and out, getting ever more agitated, during the couple of hours we are there. Andu does seem to be part restaurant, part internet café, part shop, and part community centre. While we are there several men gather in the rear room and sit and chat. Behind us a man and two young children eat a tray full of meat stew piled on top of injera. Our food, however, comes on plates, beautifully arranged in small piles and with a fork and spoon each. Our plate of injera is enormous and is complemented by two slices of bread. I wonder if this is especially for us. The food is really tasty and quite easy to eat with the injera, which is spongy, and soaks up juices well.





As we are finishing our food one of the men takes two packs of twigs, wrapped in big banana leaves, through to the back. They all begin chewing the leaves as they chat. When the owner leaves his companions to clear our plates I ask him how my tea is made. I am surprised to find my Ethiopian tea is Yorkshire tea with spices added. He shows me the tin of spices, there is definitely cinnamon in there, but I don’t know what the rest is.



I ask him about the leaves. Chat, he says, it wakes you up. It is shipped from Ethiopia. He asks me if I want to try some. Ok then. It’s not drugs is it? He laughs and says its legal here. The leaves taste bitter. The men laugh at us, particularly when we swallow the chewed up leaves, not realising we are only supposed to swallow the juice.

On leaving I ask if I can take a photo of his front window. He is more than happy and tells me has been in Hackney for nearly two years, that there is quite a big Ethiopian community here, and that he wants to open up a proper restaurant on Brick Lane, but that now, in order to make enough money, he has to run the internet side of the business as well. He asks me if I am a journalist, I laugh and explain my project. He seems happy when I tell him the meal is one of the nicest I have had. I’m not so happy when I get home and find out the effects of Chat are described as similar to those of amphetamines!





So what exactly is chat?
Chat has been used for centuries in countries such as Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia to enhance relaxation or to lubricate social gatherings. It is increasingly popular in Britain and is seen as a relatively safe high—an alternative to the west’s favourite drug, alcohol. Chat is an evergreen shrub that grows naturally on the mountain sides of many parts of Africa. In Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya the plant is cultivated and several tons a week are bundled up for export; the majority ends up in Britain for use by the Somali community. In economic terms Chat is Ethiopia’s fourth largest export, and in upland regions such as Harange, it is the backbone of the economy, employing thousands of farmers, packers, harvesters and traders.

Around 90% of Somali men in Britain are thought to chew the plant. According to scientists, there are several potential results of excessive Chat use. It raises the user’s blood pressure and risk of heart disease. Regular users can have bad gum disease and a tendency to lose teeth and there is a high incidence of oesophageal and gastric cancers among chewers. But perhaps the biggest issue is the affect to one’s psychotic state. Users can become agitated and aggressive. Or they can become manic and reckless, not sleeping and feeling hyperactive, and they may become psychotic. When the effects have worn off, they feel worn out, and can feel depressed or even suicidal. However, although overuse of the drug is condemned in Ethiopia and throughout the Middle East, it also is widely recognised to be as important, socially, as coffee in the west. Users say that it has no criminality associated with it, and many people insist that it helps to create a friendly environment, even to help resolve disputes. Chat is also believed to have medicinal value, being used locally to treat influenza, gonorrhea and asthma. In Britain, chat is still legal, but the leaves available here are seldom fresh. So the British user is likely to get only a very mild hit, as the potency of the key chemical ingredient diminishes within 48 hours.
The Guardian, 05 February 2004

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