The Pirates of Somalia_ Inside Their Hidden World - Jay Bahadur [0]
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Published simultaneously in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., Toronto.
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Maps on this page and this page by Susan MacGregor/Digital Zone.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bahadur, Jay.
The pirates of Somalia : inside their hidden world / Jay Bahadur.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-90698-4
1. Pirates—Somalia—21st century. 2. Piracy—Somalia—21st century.
3. Hijacking of ships—Somalia—21st century. 4. Puntland (Somalia)—Economic conditions. 5. Somalia—Politics and government—1991–
6. Bahadur, Jay—Travel—Somalia—Puntland. I. Title.
DT403.2.B34 2011 364.164096773—dc22 2011011731
www.pantheonbooks.com
Jacket illustration by Mohamed Dahir/AFP/Getty Images
Jacket design by Peter Mendelsund
v3.1
To Ali, without whose infectious love for Africa
this book would not exist
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Map of Somalia
Map: Expansion of Pirate Operations
Prologue: Where the White Man Runs Away
1 Boyah
2 A Short History of Piracy
3 Pirate Lore
4 Of Pirates, Coast Guards, and Fishermen
5 Garaad
6 Flower of Paradise
7 The Land of Punt
8 Momman
9 The Policemen of the Sea
10 The Law of the Sea
11 Into the Pirates’ Lair
12 Pirate Insider
13 The Cadet and the Chief
14 The Freakonomics of Piracy
15 The Road’s End
Epilogue: The Problems of Puntland
Appendix 1: Simplified Somali Clan Tree
Appendix 2: The Victoria Gang
Appendix 3: Piracy Timeline
Acknowledgements
Notes
Illustrations
Somalia
Expansion of Pirate Operations
Prologue
Where the White Man Runs Away
IT WAS MY FIRST TRIP TO AFRICA.
I arrived in Somalia in the frayed seat of a 1970s Soviet Antonov propeller plane, heading into the internationally unrecognized region of Puntland on a solo quest to meet some present-day pirates. The 737s of Dubai, with their meal services and functioning seatbelts, were a distant memory; the plane I was in was not even allowed to land in Dubai, and the same probably went for the unkempt, ill-tempered Ukrainian pilot.
To the ancient Egyptians, Punt had been a land of munificent treasures and bountiful wealth; in present times, it was a land of people who robbed wealth from the rest of the world. Modern Puntland, a self-governing region in northeastern Somalia, may or may not be the successor to the Punt of ancient times, but I was soon to discover that it contained none of the gold and ebony that dazzled the Egyptians—save perhaps for the colours of the sand and the skin of the nomadic goat and camel herders who had inhabited it for centuries.
The cabin absorbed the heat of the midday African sun like a Dutch oven, thickening the air until it was unbearable to breathe. Sweat poured freely off my skin and soaked into the torn cloth of my seat cover. Male passengers fanned themselves with the Russian-language aircraft safety cards; the women fanned their children. The high whine of the Antonov’s propellers changed pitch as it accelerated along the Djibouti runway, building towards a droning crescendo that I had not heard outside of decades-old movies.
The stories I had heard of these planes did nothing to put me at ease: a vodka-soaked technician banging on exposed engine parts with a wrench; a few months prior, a plant-nosed landing at Bossaso airstrip after a front landing strut had refused to extend. Later, in Bossaso, I saw the grounded craft, abandoned where it had crashed, a few lackadaisical guards posted nearby to prevent people from stripping the valuable metal.
This flight was like a forgotten relic of the Cold War, a physical testament to long-defunct Somali-Soviet geopolitical ties that had disintegrated with the countries themselves; its Ukrainian crew, indentured servants condemned forever to ferry passengers along this neglected route.
Over the comm system, the Somali steward offered a prayer in triplicate: Allahu