Voltage,
I always intended to retire to Jilib. My background and interest when I was there was really more in farming and animal husbandry than it was in teaching ESL. I have mentioned it, but you may not be aware that I spent four summers as a teenager working on my grandfather's cattle ranch in Utah. What I saw was a similar situation and all that untapped agricultural potential in the Jubba basin, Eyl, etc. I was hoping finally to have some impact in that field.
My advancing years and the prolonged negative situation in Konfuurta now makes even a visit there an unlikely probability.
For the most part now I have caught up with recent Somali history but continue researching blanks in the background as topics suggest themselves here. If you haven't read The Invention of Somalia, do. There are some aspects of Somali history that only new archaeology and DNA studies wil finally fill in. I am just continueing to look at the data as it comes along.
You are aware of the theory that all peoples outside Africa descend from only two hundred individuals who crossed the mouth of the Red Sea, having come either through or from the Horn? All Caucasians descend from only eight women. Where did they come from...........