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Investors Return To Mogadishu With Money, Know-How

Investors Return To Mogadishu With Money, Know-How

From business people to politicians and artists, many who have been long gone from Mogadishu – some as long as 20 years or more– are coming back and revitalizing Somalia’s capital.

They bring with them not only the capital to invest in Mogadishu businesses, but also the ideas and knowledge they have learned in their time away.

“Apart from the money they bring in, they have brought creativity from different parts of the world,” said Aden Farah, an artist who goes by the nickname Affey. “They will change many things in this country. So many different businesses are being created,” he said in an article in Voice of America.

Liban Mahdi is an example of someone who came back after living in the U.S. and Canada more than 25 years. “During the war it got destroyed,” he said, referring to the Makkah hotel downtown.  “My cousins and I and my uncle got back together and we decided to put back the business.”

After Mahdi helped re-open the hotel, he opened the franchised Mug Coffee Lounge, where many from the diaspora meet to discuss their time away and their new plans for their homeland.

Many who returned are making their mark in politics, hoping to effect change for the good.

Hussein Arab Isse, who spent most of his life in California, returned in 2011 and entered politics, representing a district in Somaliland.

“We bring what we can add to the local culture here, whether it’s politics…social services, human rights…when you live abroad it kind of opens your mind up…anything bad you leave behind.  All the good stuff you bring back home,” Isse told Voice of America.

Many who return are surprised to find a country very different from the one they left. Khadija Ali, a doctor who lived in Toronto for 27 years, said people now are more religious and more conservative. Still, she hopes to improve health services in Mogadishu.

As for the artist, Affey, he is pleased to be able to uncover some of the art he kept under wraps for so long during the war. Now, with people returning to Mogadishu, he believes the city seems open to new ideas and opportunities.