Gum Arabic has been seen as a symbol of the “noble Orient” and later as a symbol of trouble. It is the hardened sap of varieties of acacia trees which grow exclusively in the Sahel, an area stretching across the African continent just south of the Sahara. From the time of the Crusades, when Europeans purchased it in Arab countries, it has played an ever-growing role in the global economy. It is now a common ingredient in foods, sodas, and cosmetics. Combining cultural history with travel writing, Dorrit van Dalen follows the fascinating history and shifting meanings assigned to gum Arabic from Shakespeare to Bin Laden and from the Industrial Revolution to a veteran of a recent coup d’état in Chad. She shows that both Western and African civilisations would not be the same without these tears of the acacia.

Dorrit van Dalen has worked in West Africa in international cooperation and as a journalist. She is now affiliated with Leiden University.

Preface

I Lustre
Precious jewels
It makes your hair curl
Tears of the acacia
Gum, balm and resin

II Modest gum
Glue
Ink
The best gum sticks to the teeth

III Noble gum
Rubens’ portrait
Healing properties
Othello’s plea
To Timbuctoo

IV Wealth of Nations
Nothing but the pain
Nixon’s secret
Free trade or privilege
All anomaly!

V The gum wars of the eighteenth century
The stakes
Brüe and Aʿli Shanzura
Floating watchmen
Cumming and Aʿmar ould Aʿli Shanzura

VI Mystère et boule de gomme
Far from here
These barbarous meetings
A battle of cunning and fraud
Impotence and prestige
Saint-Louis

VII Sudan: the roller-coaster
Do the world a favour
I saw a man in El Obeid
The promised land
Manna from heaven

VIII Chad: the idea of kitir
Purity and danger
Land rights and religion
The inner circle
Arabian nights

IX Intangible tears
Definitions
To stock or to substitute
Botany
Chemistry
Bibliography

Index