“Shisha-abana,” says Bilal, a grocer in Mali’s capital, Bamako, in the national language Bambara: “Shisha is finished.”
His is a common reaction. An unexpected ban on hookah smoking in the west African country has stirred surprise as well as division, leaving devotees dismayed, but health advocates delighted.
Bars where small groups of smokers — primarily young men — hang out to chat and puff on water pipes have flourished in Bamako in the past few years. Mali is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, and interpretations of Islam are generally unfavorable to cigarettes and to shisha.
However, it is also a secular nation that tolerates alcohol, even if consumption is limited to certain public places, and most shops and restaurants do not serve it.
Shishas, or hookahs, typically burn a tobacco flavored with fruit to provide a sweetened taste. The smoke is inhaled in through a long rubber tube, passing through water to cool it down.
“Shisha” is also the term sometimes used for the tobacco product.
The government’s sudden decision on Monday last week to ban shishas took many by surprise — the ruling junta, in power since 2020, had not been particularly known for its concerns about tobacco.
The law, cosigned by six ministries, including the Malian ministries of security, health and youth, “prohibits the importation, distribution, sale and use of shishas [water pipes] or any similar device throughout the national territory.”
Any shisha smoker will be punished with a prison sentence of one to 10 days and a fine of 300 to 10,000 CFA francs (US$0.45 to US$15.00). Shisha bars have six months to close.
The authorities did not provide any reason for the ban.
In his shop in the center of Bamako, Abdramane Daff is fuming as he shows off his pile of stock.
“We can’t sell all this in six months, it’s impossible,” he said. “We beg [the authorities] to look for another solution — maybe they could limit themselves to banning consumption in the streets and spare shisha sales.”
On the consumer side, there are questions about the authorities’ ability to enforce the decree.
“Is it possible to stop smoking shisha for good?” asked one occasional smoker on condition of anonymity.
Measures such as the closure of restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic had little effect in a country where many businesses are informal and law enforcement resources are limited.
On social networks or in conversations in Bamako, the news was rather well received.
“Thank you for the ban on shisha in Mali, I think we should now ban cigarettes as they are also a drug!” Abdoul Karim Maiga wrote on Twitter.
“I think the decree is very important,” said Ousmane Toure, a representative of the association of tobacco victims. “In terms of mortality and disease, if we took into account shisha and tobacco, we would see that frankly it is better to stop.”
Salif Kone, a tobacco specialist, points to a study conducted in schools in Bamako showing that “about 70 percent of young people use shisha.”
A working group of the WHO in 2017 warned about the danger of shisha smoking.
The practice is up to 10 times more harmful than cigarettes, but is not targeted by the same awareness campaigns, it said.
It is “up to us, the doctors, the parents of these children, to combine our efforts with those of the government to [make them] stop using shisha,” Kone said.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia have taxed shisha consumption. Others have banned it.
In Mali, few critical voices have been raised apart from shisha bar managers.
“Was this the most urgent thing, when our country is in the grip of a multipronged crisis?” one social scientist asked on condition of anonymity.
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