![]() This points to the growing popularity of hookah among young, middle class urbanites. “Ever since we start providing it too, our luck changed.” Some employees at Black Pearl estimated that the number of customers has increased five-fold since shisha was introduced. “We suffered losses for almost six months when we first opened because other bars were offering customers shisha,” a senior manager at Black Pearl told EBR. This reality is confirmed by business insiders. EBR conducted an assessment which revealed there are around three times more customers in hookah bars than in bars that don’t provide shisha. ![]() According to an assessment conducted by the government between February and April 2017 in Woreda 3 of Bole District, 24 bars, as well 35 residential houses were found providing shisha.Įach bar, which buys the shisha equipment for around ETB1,800, designates certain employees to assist customers who come to smoke they far outnumber customers who don’t. In fact, there are at least five lounges that provide hookah within a 200-metre radius of Black Pearl.Īt least three quarters of the bars and lounges between Atlas Hotel and Bole High School offer hookah to their customers. In recent times, Addis Ababa, whose urban population grows by five percent every year, has witnessed an explosion of bars that provide hookah alongside food and drinks, as well as shops that sell glass pipes and smoking wares. “Although I go to other bars sometimes, I prefer Black Pearl, mostly because it is close to where I work,” she explained. The group frequents Black Pearl because they find it convenient for smoking hookah. When EBR met her, she and her friends were smoking flavored tobacco, which is available in various flavors such as apple, orange and mint, from the same pipe. It opened last year and has attracted a diverse clientele most of the bar’s hookah customers, including Betelhem Berhanu, are between the ages of 20 and 40.īetelhem, 27, comes to the bar at least once a week. There was at least one hookah, locally known as shisha, on each of the bar’s 14 tables. On a weekday evening at around 9:30pm, Black Pearl Bar and Restaurant, a lounge located in Bole District, near Bole Secondary and Preparatory School is packed with more than two dozen customers. Although the government is trying to reduce the use of hookah by closing lounges that offer the service and passing laws, nothing seems able to arrest their spread, as EBR’s Samson Berhane reports. As a result, the consumption of hookah, locally known as shisha, is also rapidly expanding in Addis and other towns across the country, exposing people to health related risks. ![]() ![]() In fact, Addis Ababa is witnessing an explosion of hookah bars, as well as shops that sell glass pipes and smoking wares. Nowadays, hookah lounges are common sights across the main streets of the capital. ![]()
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