President Osman and Prime Minister Hussen dedicated their long lives to the cause of the Somali people and to a democratic political order. My last con- versation with Hussen, a few weeks before he returned to his Allah, made clear to me his unwavering conviction of the most appropriate way to Somali salvation as being a democratic political system anchored in professionally autonomous pub- lic institutions. At the age of ninety he was as spirited about the civic cause of the Somali people as when he was prime minister in his forties.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, loc. 39