The tsunami of 2004 devastated the country, killing thousands and destroyed the fishing industry. Piracy has always been present, but Bahadur's sources tell him it has increased due to economic conditions. With the longest coastline in Africa, most commerce in this country of nomads gravitates to the sea. Part adventure story, part travelogue, part news story, like African explorers of another era he takes the reader behind the headlines and along the dusty roads of this contentious land.
"In Somalia, everything is done through connections, be they clan, family or friend, and these networks are expansive and interminable you have to know one another, and it seems sometimes that everyone does."īahadur bought his ticket and headed into the unknown. Mahamad Farole, the owner of Radio Garowe and the son of the new president of Puntland, promised to help. Looking for sponsors via the Internet, Bahadur made inquiries to various news organizations and got a response from one in the capital of the self-governing state of Puntland in northeastern Somalia. (Five months later, after a $3.2 million ransom was paid, the ship and its crew were released.) The ship loaded with Soviet-made tanks and other weapons en route to the Sudan had been captured by Somalian pirates and was surrounded by a task force of warships, mainly American. In September, the hijacking of the Ukrainian tank transport ship MV Faina had made headlines around the world.
His choice: Somalia, the horn of Africa, a land suffering extreme famine and record drought, a country without a national government after a two-decades-long civil war, and a people who increasingly were turning to piracy.
In the fall 2008, young Canadian Jay Bahadur, fresh out of college with no clear career choice and wanting to become a journalist but unable to get his foot in the proverbial door, decided to go to one of the most dangerous places on earth to make his mark.
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