In 2007, as Sudan faced Western pressure and sanctions over the bloody conflict in Darfur, the country’s ambassador to the United States famously held up a Coca-Cola bottle at a news conference and declared: “I can stop that gum arabic, and all of us will have lost this.”
What John Ukec Lueth Ukec was referring to was one of Sudan’s leading agricultural exports: gum arabic, a natural emulsifier tapped from acacia trees that has had countless uses throughout history – from ancient Egyptians depending on it for mummification to more recent uses in anything from shoe polish and sweets to medicines and cosmetics.
