The first is a warning to those who aspire to attain political leadership positions in the country. They ought to heed the reality that nearly all of those who have come to power since 1967 were either killed in office or impris- oned or had to flee the country once they were out of power. In contrast Osman lived on his farm along the Shabelle River or in his home in Mogadishu without fear for nearly forty years. No one ever threatened him, even at the height of the civil war in the 1990s.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, loc. 1094