BACK TO MOGADISHU: Memoirs of a Somali herder

BACK TO MOGADISHU: Memoirs of a Somali herder

Like nearly all the Somalis of my generation, I was born in a totally rural, bushland environment among shepherd-breeder nomads who were strangers to agriculture. I’m the son of a society of cameleers and shepherds, and that’s how I lived, until I was ten.” That is how this memoir begins. In these pages, the remarkable life of Mohamed Aden Sheikh (shepherd, doctor, minister and victim of political persecution) is intertwined with the recent history of Somalia; one of the most ill-fated countries in Africa today. This book bears passionate witness, and is the result of an attentive intellectual analysis. It provides us with insights into the effects of Italian colonialism in Africa, the mistakes made by the fathers of Somali independence, and the twenty-year regime of General Siad Barre that led to bloodshed and anarchy. Ioan M. Lewis Anthropologist, London School of Economics