Somali gold rush endangering perfumery, scent
The three kings of the biblical nativity carried three precious gifts to mark the birth of Jesus - but a modern-day gold rush in Somaliland is putting the ancient perfume trade in frankincense and myrrh at risk.
“The gold, frankincense and myrrh brought by the three wise men to baby Jesus definitely came from here,” said the old man sitting in the dust under a tree.
I met Aden Hassan Salah on Daallo Mountain, part of the Golis range that straddles the self-declared republic of Somaliland and Puntland State in Somalia. Both territories claim the area.
“The routes of the camel caravans that for centuries transported them from here to the Middle East can be seen from space,” he said.
The Bible refers to how these animals carried the gifts to Bethlehem where it is believed that Jesus was born. A younger man, dressed in a sarong and Manchester United football top, sprang up from the ground. His name was Mohamed Said Awid Arale.
“As I’m sure you know, ‘Puntland’ means the ‘land of exquisite aromas,’” he said.
“One thousand, five hundred years before Jesus was born, Egypt’s most powerful female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, made a famous expedition here. She ordered the construction of five boats for the journey, filled them with the three precious substances, and sailed back home.
“Gold was used to adorn Hatshepsut’s body, frankincense was burned in her temples and myrrh was used to mummify her after she died.”
Gold, frankincense and myrrh have been exported from the region for thousands of years. Much of the world’s frankincense comes from the Horn of Africa. Today, one of the gifts brought to baby Jesus, gold, is sowing the seeds of destruction of the other two.
The men on Daallo Mountain are part of the problem. They spearheaded a gold rush which began around five years ago and has led to the uprooting of frankincense and myrrh trees, some centuries old.
“Gold-miners have swarmed into the mountains,” said Hassan Ali Dirie who works for the Candlelight environmental organisation.
“They cut down all the plants when they clear areas for mining. They damage the roots of the trees when they dig for gold. They block crucial waterways with their plastic bottles and other rubbish,” he said.
“Day by day, they are ensuring the slow death of these ancient trees. The first to go are the myrrh trees, which are uprooted when the diggers clear the land for surface mining.
“Frankincense trees last a bit longer as they grow on rocks and are destroyed once the miners dig deep into the earth.”
A little further up the hill is a frankincense village where the trees have been passed down from generation to generation. A woman sat on a turquoise plastic chair in her porch surrounded by children, their mothers and baby goats.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Racwi Mohamed Mahamud when I asked her about the story of the Magi bearing gifts. “All I know is that my family has owned these trees for hundreds of years. They are passed from great-great-grandfather to great-grandfather to grandfather to father to son.”
