A journal of the Horn
Political analysis, philosophy, and the geopolitics of Somalia. Essays in English and Af-Soomaali by Abdirahman Samawade.
Featured essay
Every few years the same package comes back. The real failure sits before all of that: people start selling solutions before anyone has said, plainly, what the problem is.
September 12, 2026 · 5 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
September 12, 2026 · 5 min
NIRA, the Central Bank, and a prime minister’s order are turning Tirsi Aqoonsi into a license for the network. Puntland and Jubaland have already refused the license.
5 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
Mahad Wasuge’s memoir is not an outsider’s book about a “failed state.” Written for his children, for Somalis, and for anyone who still only knows the country through headlines.
September 20, 2026 · 2 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
A message to Northern Cyprus, a hurried walk-back, and the price of Turkish protection.
August 23, 2026 · 3 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
A federal election returned a familiar trio to Villa Somalia. Direct suffrage is now the stated project — and half the country may sit it out.
November 15, 2024 · 2 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
A guest concept note on restoring social accountability in Somalia — and why the media is the entry point.
June 13, 2024 · 4 min read · Abdirizak A. Hassan
A new fisheries law and IOTC-aligned regulations put Mogadishu in a position to license vessels operating beyond 24 nautical miles.
April 7, 2023 · 1 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
Mogadishu has asked Washington to designate Somalia as an AGOA beneficiary — duty-free access, and a test of whether the country’s export machine can be built.
March 29, 2023 · 1 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
A career diplomat from Ottawa, Peshawar, Kabul and Sana’a is nominated to succeed Larry André in Mogadishu.
March 29, 2023 · 1 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
Two metaphors for how communities punish success — and a question for the Somali public square: are we bringing one another up, or down?
March 28, 2023 · 3 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
The longest coastline on mainland Africa is not a postcard. It is a development strategy — if Mogadishu and the member states can share it.
March 23, 2023 · 2 min read · Abdirahman Samawade
From 10th-century Somali merchants on the Sofala coast to FRELIMO’s war of independence — a forgotten corridor of the Indian Ocean world.
March 23, 2023 · 3 min read · Abdirahman Samawade