Gum arabic

The first trading Post established in Mauritania's coast by Europeans in 15th century traded in Gum Arabic and slaves. With the change of powers from Spain to Dutch to French in the 17th century, gum arabic was exploited for textile printing in the preindustrial economies of Europe.

Gum Arabic has other names like gum sudani, gum acacia.... It's a natural gum, made from the hardened sap of two acacia tree species or two from other plant genus like combretum, albiza..

Gum acacia is a mixture of glycoproteins and polysaccharides. This mixture makes it edible but not digested - it's a dietary fibre due to its composition which is mainly a family of arabinose. It's caloric value is unsettled.

Gum acacia's advantages have been discovered earlier by nomads in the Sahel and Arabs before the west.
It's used mainly as a binder in varied lines of production. Its used in;

• food industry as a stabilizer (E414) in soft drink syrup, chewing gum, chocolate candies...
• Cosmetics, in shoe polish, water colour paint, print dyes for printing machines and paints.
• For lickable adhesives like postage stamps, envelopes, cigarette papers.
• Wine fining agent for wine makers. 
• In pharmaceutical companies. Etc.
  

Gum acacia is tapped by scrapping off the bark of acacia tree from which it oozes out. Its a means of livelihood for many Sudanese with the country exporting hundred thousands of tonnes each year. The gum is used by Shakespeare and other medieval artists in their works where it represented "noble orient." In the Sahel, it's a symbol of youth purity.

In the early 19th century, gum acacia trade led to a political marriage between two traditional states which incurred a full blown war with the French because it affected their economic interests. This led to the northward expansion of the French colony north of Senegal river and they were involved in gum acacia's trade till all their colonized countries became independent.

Obscuring the damage or theft colonial masters brought on Africa, moving on to the present times... acacia tree grows in about 16 countries in Sub-saharan Africa of which Nigeria is one. 

The obvious underemployment of resources such as gum acacia in Nigeria as against the well employed economic resources of other countries is left for debate, mind you, we consume materials of which gum Arabic is an essential component in large quantities (especially soft drinks and cosmetics 😉.) Think of why our economy is failing...