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This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School My US book tour of September and October 2012 took me to four cities. I started off in Boston where  The World Peace Foundation  at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University invited me to give a  talk . The World Peace Foundation organised my book tour  and asked no less than five academics to  review my book . I also wrote a  response  to those reviews. I would like to thank Alex de Waal, Bridget Conley and Lisa Avery  of The World Peace Foundation for all their help, as well as the engaged and intelligent students of Tufts University who came to my talks, and asked such interesting and challenging questions. The book event started with a book-signing in The Hall of Flags at The Fletcher School.  This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School By chance, the Somali flag was hanging near to

The new president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, faces a lot of challenges, including the Islamist group Al Shabaab, the Somali regions that have chosen to 'go it alone' and the presence in Somalia of numerous foreign forces. As someone who stayed in Somalia for most of the past two decades of conflict, he will be fully aware of the physical destruction of so much in Somalia and the immense human suffering of so many of its people. I saw that suffering at close hand on a recent trip to Mogadishu, where almost every open patch of land seemed to be inhabited by displaced people living in igloo-shaped structures made from ragged cloth, plastic bags, tin sheets and bits of wire and rope. A few people in the camps have set up businesses such as this tailor working in a little shop. This woman told me she had been beaten by guards because she had complained about conditions in the camp   She had a big bruise on her upper arm The next three photos show places where people in the c

This is a review of my book for The Journal of Modern African Studies by the  Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the USA's Emory University, Dr Peter D. Little, who wrote the book Somalia: Economy Without State. Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War, and Hope in a Shattered State by MARY HARPER London: Zed Books, in association with International African Institute, Royal African Society, and Social Science Research Council Mary Harper has done a great service to students and the general public who really want to know what has gone so tragically wrong with Somalia. There now is a readable, well-argued book that one can refer to students and colleagues when peppered with the common question: ‘why is contemporary Somalia such a troubled nation?’ While seasoned experts of Somalia will not find much that is new in the book, they may applaud its accessibility and coverage of so many relevant and timely Somali issues in one single source. As a seasoned British Broadcasting Company (BBC)