The phone network works in Mogadishu. We started Skyping in in the Spring of 2013. This photograph was from Wave 3, Spring 2014.

The phone network works in Mogadishu. We started Skyping in in the Spring of 2013. This photograph was from Wave 3, Spring 2014.

Somalia

Dagaal waa ka-dare, bro.

    -- Somali proverb, San Diego variant

In 2011, when I lived in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego, I started working closely with Nicholai Lidow and the Somali community in City Heights.

Over time, the GWOT stopped being central to my research, U.S. policy towards East Africa changed, enforcement of immigration laws changed, I moved (a few times, each further away from City Hights), and I started a family. I gradually lost touch with the friends in this picture.

My gratitude to Nicholai, Abdulmalik Buul, Elaine Denny, Michael Seese, and our many Somali subjects and collaborators is immense. I no longer invest energy following Somali politics.