King of Myrrh

Dere Dawa The small town in Ethiopia at the border to Somalia is the starting point of the journey.

Colorful market Some products come from neighbouring Somaliland

First aid Aden is surprised about first aid food which is offered for sale.

Myrrh and Olibanum On his way to Somalia Aden checks myrrh and frankincense at the markets in Ethiopia.

Frankincense Frankincense, also called olibanum, is an aromatic resin obtained from trees

Zhenfang Liu The Chinese is Aden's most important costumer and wants to buy 30 tons natural resins on the trip.

Ahmed Jama Aden has relatives everywhere

China Liu realizes the first time how African markets are flooded by Chinese products.

Border-crossing into Somalia.

Somaliland Stopover in Somaliland: Hargeisa. That is the capital of the de facto independent state.

Refugees Puntland: IDP camps everywhere

Pirates Military escort for walking through the pirate town Boosaaso is obligatory.

Desert Puntland is a self-declared, internationally not recognized, autonomous state and consists only of desert.

Desert Car wrecks and garbarge along lonely roads.

Oasis Small oases with Burseraceaes

Resin The bushes are cut so that the resin drops out and dries.

Resin From there the resin just needs to be collected.

Resin The resin drops out...

Harvest ... and is harvested.

Farmer is one of the myrrh farmers.

Outcrop Freshly harvested myrrh has to dry first before it can burn.

Deal Aden orders a large amount of myrrh and exchanges mobile numbers with the farmer.

Shopping Aden checks other natural resins in the storehouses in Boosaaso .

Fire test He checks the quality with the fire test.

Bargaining As usual vociferous negotiations.

Shipping Last but not least the goods are packed and ready for shipping.

Purchased Liu is happy with Adens assortment of goods.

Assortment For the guest from China Aden presents all his goods: myrrh, frankincense, gum arabic.

Khat For sealing the business Liu is convinced to chew some khat.

Berlin-Neukölln Ahmed with friends in his local pub where everything started as an idea with a beer.

A young Berliner got into his head to deal with cheap natural resins like myrrh. The problem: He has to travel to Somalia again and again, one of the world’s most dangerous countries.

This reportage was published in German only.

Text from Christoph Grabitz
Photos from Yannick Tylle

: May 2012

: May 2012

: May 2012

King of Myrrh

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