Staring hard into an old, weather-tattered plastic drink bottle, I can make out a mass of entwined leaves, roots and assorted items of undeterminable origin. I raise my eyebrows. “And this is it?,” I ask in what must sound like a sceptical tone. The old man, with glitter silver hair, defensively nods. “This is it. This can cure almost anything. Just make a soup from it and drink.”
I must have eaten something bad the night before, because I have spent much of the morning doubled up with stomach cramps. When I tell my driver about this and suggest stopping at a pharmacy to get some medication, he scoffs at the idea. “Pff. They’ll just fill you with chemicals and then charge you a lot of money.” He’s probably right. “Let’s go and see a guérisseur instead and get something natural. I know a good one with strong powers. It will be interesting for you as well.”
With my stomach feeling like it’s doing cart-wheels on a trampoline, I’m not entirely sure that “interesting” or “natural” is what I want right now, but on the other hand, there’s something undeniably intriguing about seeking treatment from a guérisseur.
I’m in Conakry, the swirling, buzzing capital of Guinea, a small country of forests and mud, cool highland plateaus and mangrove swamp coasts, on the western bulge of Africa. A former French colony, today, it’s one of the world’s least-known and least-developed countries.
Guinea rarely makes international news. In 2014, though, Guinea filled the airtime of international news organisations for weeks on end thanks to an outbreak of Ebola. By the end of that year, the virus had claimed several thousand lives across Guinea, as well as neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, and had led to much of the region being shut off from the rest of the world.
Surrounding countries slammed their borders shut in fear that the virus might spread. Airlines stopped flying to affected countries and Guinea’s already sluggish economy ground to a total standstill. But eventually local authorities and international medical NGOs got a grip on the outbreak, and in June last year, the World Health Organization declared Guinea Ebola-free. Projects that had been on hold for a couple of years sprang back to life, borders re-opened and airlines returned, including Emirates, which in November relaunched direct flights between Dubai and Conakry.
The exact translation of the French word guérisseur is a little hard to pin down and rather depends on the translator. “Faith healer”, “witch doctor”, even “sorcerer” are all possible options, but I prefer to use “traditional healer”.
I ask the guérisseur how he came up with his heal-all recipe. “I watched the chimpanzees in the forest and copied what they did.” Perhaps sensing my increasing alarm at consuming a chimp-conjured medication, the guérisseur adds more detail. “For 25 years, I worked as a field biologist and university lecturer. I was studying the chimpanzees that live in the forests in the south of Guinea, and over time I noticed that when a chimp was sick it would often go off on its own and find certain plants in the forest to eat. I realised that they had some basic understanding that certain plants could cure them of certain sicknesses, so I started gathering the same plants and came up with this medication. It really does work for various stomach bugs and other minor illnesses.”
Somewhat more reassured, I pay up and make my way back outside into the bright light and deafening racket of a rush-hour morning in Conakry. While I wait for my medication to take effect, I need somewhere quiet to recover. My driver has the answer: “Îles de Los.” Ignoring my protestations about preferring to lie in my hotel bed, he takes me to Conakry’s filthy port, where we jump into a small boat and bob away from the noise, congestion and chaos of the city to a peaceful island world of gold-tinged sand beaches, bird- and butterfly-filled forests and little thatch villages linked by lipstick-red bumpy mud tracks.
The name Îles de Los derives from Ilhas dos Ídolos, Portuguese for “Islands of the Idols”. It’s certainly appropriate, because with frequent little ferry boats making the hour-long crossing from Conakry, this is the weekend getaway destination of choice for stressed city folk. As laid-back as the islands are, though, I can’t get my mind to relax. All that chatter about medically aware chimpanzees has piqued my interest. And after a day or two of lazing in the shade of palm trees and dipping in and out of the water, my stomach has stopped spinning enough to return to the mainland and go looking for chimpanzees.
Asking around, I quickly discover that Guinea has the largest chimp population in West Africa, but because of widespread and severe deforestation, as well as an almost total lack of environmental law enforcement, Guinea’s chimps are increasingly left with no choice but to live side by side with their human neighbours. And as I discover a few days later in the Parc National du Haut Niger, some chimpanzees end up living much too close to their human cousins.
Deep in the heart of the park, the Chimpanzee Conservation Center was set up to try to rehabilitate chimpanzees rescued from the exotic pet trade (many were set to be illegally exported to Gulf states and China) back in the wild. It was a slow and difficult process. Some of the chimps had been taught to smoke cigarettes or wear clothes, and almost all were highly traumatised by their experiences. Not that I would have known this. On my first morning at the centre, I sit quietly among leaf litter of the forest floor while a handful of baby chimps rumble and tumble around me, race up trees and even appear to have toddler tantrums when they don’t get their way. One of the babies is a little quieter than the others, though, and doesn’t seem interested in the rollicking games taking place around it.
“This one’s feeling a little unwell I think,” the head of the project, Christine, says. “In the wild, chimpanzees sometimes know what sort of plants can cure them, but these ones have never learnt that skill, so we have to treat them with medication if they get too sick. She’ll be OK, though.”
I think about the old plastic drink bottle half-full of entwined leaves and roots, hidden somewhere in the depths of my bag. “Oh, I know all about chimpanzee medicine and how good that can be,” I reply, with a smile.
Stuart Butler is one of the authors of the Lonely Planet guide to West Africa.
travel@thenational.ae
Vikram%20Vedha
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Ireland v Denmark: The last two years
Denmark 1-1 Ireland
7/06/19, Euro 2020 qualifier
Denmark 0-0 Ireland
19/11/2018, Nations League
Ireland 0-0 Denmark
13/10/2018, Nations League
Ireland 1 Denmark 5
14/11/2017, World Cup qualifier
Denmark 0-0 Ireland
11/11/2017, World Cup qualifier
JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Inside%20Out%202
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
more from Janine di Giovanni
HAJJAN
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Abu%20Bakr%20Shawky%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3EStarring%3A%20Omar%20Alatawi%2C%20Tulin%20Essam%2C%20Ibrahim%20Al-Hasawi%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The years Ramadan fell in May
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKinetic%207%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rick%20Parish%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clean%20cooking%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
RESULT
Kolkata Knight Riders 169-7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals 144-4 (20 ovs)
Kolkata win by 25 runs
Next match
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders, Friday, 5.30pm
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
SPEC%20SHEET
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
