Horn of Africa Elects New President

Torn apart by decades of civil war, yesterday brought a ray of hope that Somalia might be able to return to some semblance of peace. 

Somali

Over the past months, the democratic process in Somalia has grown under pressure from the UN and recently, --a Parliament was elected by a group of traditional elders. That Parliament has just succeeded in electing a new president. Dark horse candidate Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was voted Somalia's new president after coming in second in the first round of voting and then beating out-going President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who incidentally is from his same clan, in the second round. Mohamud is known to be associated with the Somali version of the Muslim Brotherhood, but don't get scared just yet, Americans.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud

The founder of a university in Mogadishu, the capital, ("the dish" as my colleague calls it), Mohamud is a lecturer there and an activist known to work with NGOs. He also founded the Somali Institute for Management and Administrative Development (SIMAD). SIMAD managed to hold talks with al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based cell for al-Qaeda, which is an impressive feat considering Shabaab chases most other groups out of areas they control.

Random Kate Thoughts: Most of my students who are Somali grew up in Kenya, because the Horn of Africa has been such a huge mess since 1991. Many of you know a bit about Somalia from the movie "Black Hawk Down" but, as exciting a movie as it was, many Somalis found it to be a very poor representation of the people, from the actors hired to the language they seem to speak in the film, etc. Nonetheless, it is about time that Somalia shaped up. One suggestion that has been tossed around is splitting the country into three parts, with the argument being that that would enable more peace in the region as clans would not have to fight as heavily for power. That said, the world does not take kindly to separatist movements (see: Western Sahara). For now, let's just hope that Mohamud manages to keep the country together.