A CHALLENGING TRANSITION IN SOMALIA: A Story of Personal Courage and Conviction, by Abdiweli Mohamed Ali

In the midst of a long transitional period, political divisions, an active insurgency, and the worst drought in over a half-century, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed appointed Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali to head the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in June 2011.

Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali was tasked with forming a new and effective cabinet, turning back the tide against the insurgency of the Alshabab terror group, responding effectively to the worst drought and famine in 60 plus years and to driving progress on the impossible task of ending Somalia’s long transitional period and creating permanent democratic institutions in just eleven short months.

A challenging Transition – is a first- hand account of the events, decisions, personal courage and commitment that shaped the process that led to the end of the Transitional of Federal Government of Somalia and the establishment of permanent democratic institutions.  It provides a revealing picture of the inner workings of the Somali state machinery, and a unique insight into the most sensitive details of both the personal and what was happening behind closed doors.

“Well worth reading and the author is perceptive, humble and forward-looking.  Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali is both a scholar and a politician, blessed with a vision of a better future for Somalia and its people”

–Nuruddin Farah, Prominent and award winning Somali novelist

“In this personal political memoir, one of contemporary Somalia’s most prominent political leaders presents a down-to-earth, concise, well-written and remarkably accessible account of his role and experiences in the process by which the Somali state moved from collapse and transition to full formal statehood in 2012.  The author does so against the background of his own life experience, which is both typical and atypical of that of many Somalis of his generation.”

–Dr. Lidwien Kapteijns, Wellesley College

“Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali’s book captures a crucial moment in Somali history.  One of the  main actors in the making of the  most recent chapters of this history, Abdiweli breathtakingly describes how he was born with the birth of modern Somali state in 1960, observed its rise as an infant African democracy, witnessed its horrifying destruction and later actively participated in the painstaking attempt to resurrect it.”

–Maxamed Daahir Afrax, PhD, Author, Founder-president of International PEN’s Somali-speaking Writers Club, President of the Intergovernmental Academy of Somali language

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. ABDIWELI MOHAMED ALI, also known as Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas is a Somali American economist, professor and politician.  He served as the Prime Minister of Somalia from June 2011 to October 2012, and briefly afterward as a Member of Parliament in the newly formed federal Parliament of Somalia.

CATEGORY
Politics, Sociology/AFRICA