Markets for camels come with information asymmetries in favor of the sellers. To overcome these over thousands of kilometers, Somalis have developed amazing methods.
In 1970, the Nobel Prize winner for economics George Akerlof formulated his thesis of the market of lemons. By lemons, Akerlof was alluding to the used cars with repeated mechanical problems used in American parlance. Since these problems are not visible to the potential buyer, but very well to the seller of the used car, an information asymmetry arises. Whereas the buyer can only check the seller’s information about possibly concealed defects when the car itself has passed into his possession, he only wants to pay a price that is far below the seller’s offer. For this reason, sellers cannot achieve a reasonable price with an actually high-quality used car and withdraw from the market: in the end, the overall quality on the market for used cars declines, as only the poor offers at those prices remain there.
In the near absence of a functioning government in Somalia that could prevent this market failure through regulation or control, Somalis are forced to find other ways to overcome this information asymmetry if they want to sell their camels to the rest of the Arab world.
View of the camel market in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland, a separatist part of the Republic of Somalia. (Source: Matyas Rehak, 2022).
The constituent republic of Somaliland functions very autonomously from the rest of Somalia, which is torn apart by civil war. The local government in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa even wants to establish itself as a tourist region. However, cattle breeding remains the most important source of livelihood for 60 percent of the population of the former British colony. With an estimated seven million camels, Somalia is the country with the largest camel population in the world – almost twice as many as Sudan, the second largest camel owner.
A Somali trader at the livestock market in Hargeisa. (Source: Free Wind 2014, 2010)
Not surprisingly, the camel is one of the most important economic factors not only in the lives of individual Somalis, but also in the informal state of Somaliland at the northern end of Somalia. Some Somalis even elevate the camel to an adequate substitute for the lack of oil in the country, which elevated be-neighboring states from tribal lords to respected regional powers. The Somalis are said to have been the first to domesticate camels between 3000 and 2000 BC. At local markets, one can get up to 1,000 US dollars for a good specimen, which is transferred from mobile phone to mobile phone via mobile money. In addition to their function as pack animals, the inhabitants of the Horn of Africa use the animals as a storehouse of calories in the form of milk and, above all, meat, during the region’s increasingly prolonged hot spells. In addition, there are modern business models for the camel herders, such as renting them to dairy farms during periods of drought that even camels are unable to survive. These farms take care of the animals during this time and use them for their own milk production. With this millennia-long proximity, it is not surprising that the Somalis have produced numerous words and phrases for the animals in their vocabulary, according to Zorc and Osman 1993.
Geography of the Horn of Africa. Settlement areas of Somali tribes in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya and their trade routes of lifestock. (source: own depiction, 2023)
The traditional camel trade routes also coincide very closely with the distribution area of the Somali tribes far beyond the border regions of Ethiopia and Kenya. The climatic conditions in the Horn of Africa demand extreme adaptability from man and animal. Accordingly, Somali camels are also in demand for export far beyond the borders of Africa due to their qualities as export goods. But they have to get there first, and Africa’s infrastructure is only just emerging.
A herd of camels walks along a highway in Ethiopia’s Somali Province. (Source: Zac Crellin, 2016)
Sudanese “cowboys” drive the herds through Sudan to Egypt, where they eventually end up in the country’s major markets. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2011)
But even for the ships of the desert, the thousands of kilometers long journey through the desert often becomes too strapacious and some of them perish in the desert before they end up at the slaughter-house. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2011)
Fresh camel meat in Wadi Halfa, Sudan. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2017)
Market of lemons: Due to the lack of refrigeration facilities, the people in East Africa have only a few possibilities to preserve meat. The display of the slaughtered camel indicates the freshness of the meat to interested buyers. In this way, the butcher overcomes the asymmetry of information vis-à-vis his customers, who could otherwise only rely on the butcher’s word that the mountains of meat have not been languishing for days in the sweltering heat of the Sahara. Even though some young Sudanese have to turn up their noses at the sight.
Camel transport in Egypt. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2016)
In Egypt itself, the journey often continues by car, but the exhaustion is still in the animals’ bones, as is the renewed stress with this unfamiliar means of transport. In earlier times, Sudanese camel traders tried to avoid import duties by making long detours through the desert with the camels to escape Egyptian customs officers.
Export routes of Somaliland Camels to Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt. (Source: own, 2023)
Trade routes of camels through East Africa from Somalia, cattle transports travel across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to Egypt, while cowboys up from Sudan drive the animals to Egypt. Somalis also export their animals to Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was only in 2016 that the shipment of camels from Somalia resumed after the de facto collapse of the Somali state in 1991. But now ferries from the Somaliland port of Berbera sail regularly.
There, the animals often end up at Africa’s largest camel market, the Birqash market near the Egyptian capital Cairo. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2016)
Here the animals gather after their long journey from the most diverse countries of the continent. On the backs of the animals are the markings that assign them to their owners. Even with their legs tied, the camels are agile enough to keep their herders on their toes.
Camel auction on Birqash Camel marekt in Egypt. To show potential clients the value and vitality of the beast, traders are beating the animal’s face with stick. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2017)
But again, Akerlof’s information asymmetry takes hold: after the grueling journey, the animals are in a state of exhaustion, their health and continued condition hard to see. The traders resort to very robust methods to show potential buyers that the hard-bitten animals are still agile enough to do their job or that their meat is good enough for consumption. To do this, traders use their sticks and strike the delicate facial features, nose region and eyes. A healthy camel, bursting with strength, begins to struggle and dodge the blows: this is how buyers know the animal is still healthy after its ordeal.
Somali camel races on Birqash market. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2016)
From an early age, the traders learn their business and how to use their tool, the long cane, with which they can make the 400 to 600 kilogram camels docile. (Source: Simon Kiwek, 2016)
Dried camel meat, Ethiopia. (Source: Mitiku Eshetu Guya & Getachew Neme, 2015)
The slaughter process in many parts of the Horn of Africa is also not for the faint of heart. The animal’s Achilles tendon is sometimes cut to prevent it from running away. Then its throat is cut and bled before it is transported to the slaughterhouse. There, the parts are either sold fresh or preserved by drying in the unforgiving Sahara heat, as in the picture: Somalis call this dried meat mukmud or muremure.
While in Somalia the camel is the key to people’s survival, in Saudi Arabia it is the basis of a feast, espe-cially at weddings, and a luxury with which to satiate hundreds of guests. (Source: JVN Pro Media, 2022)
