New Books In African Studies

Several months ago I interviewed Steve Bloomfield, the author of a book on African football, for New Books in African studies. As usual, I ended the interview with a simple enough sounding question: ‘Where is your favourite place in Africa?’ Steve’s answer was an unusual one – ‘Mogadishu’. Out of all of the fabulous places on the continent why on earth had he chosen the place that in itself was an expression for chaotic, murderous anarchy? Mary Harper’s Getting Somalia Wrong: Faith, War, and Hope in a Shattered State (Zed Books, 2012) helps explain why Steve was so entranced with Mogadishu. Somalia is not an easy place to get your head around, but it’s certainly fascinating, and Mary (an old journalistic colleague of mine from the BBC World Service) knows it well enough to give an outsider a real feel for what makes the place tick. Somalia is a country of paradoxes. It is pretty much unique in Africa for its racial, linguistic, cultural and religious coherence, and yet it lacks any genuine and effective cen