April, 2017

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[Hello! I didn’t write anything for a long time, but I’m still here.]

Today I was served at my local corner shop in Hove, East Sussex by a young man who said he was from Ethiopia. Of course when he told me that, it created a fizz and we had lots to chat about re. our mutual connections to the Horn. ’You know’, he told me, ‘we have more Somalis in Ethiopia than the total population of Somalia – over 8 million Somali Ethiopians.’ Hmm. Interesting if correct.

Also on population, an old US diplomat friend wrote to me the other day that ‘In 1950 Somalia (presumably both British and Italian) had a population of about 2.26 million; in 1960 it was about 2.82 million; by 1992 the population was between 6.7 and 7.5 million; currently the population is between 11 and 12 million. In 1993 when researching various aspects the most optimistic of estimates of the “carrying capacity” of Somalia was between 5 and 6 million.’
Hmm, again. Given that roughly half the population of Somalia is aged 14 and younger, and given the parlous state of educational provision in the country, and if the population continues to grow – whither the future?