Deadly Waters: The Hidden World of Somalia's Pirates.

• Author: Patman, Robert
• Position: Book review

DEADLY WATERS: The Hidden World of Somalia's Pirates

Author: Jay Bahadur

Published by: Scribe, Melbourne, 2011, 300pp, A$29.95.

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This book is an impressive demystification of the shady and sometimes murderous business of piracy. During the second half of the last decade, Somalia grabbed the headlines for the first time since the ill-fated US--UN humanitarian intervention of 1992-93. A spate of audacious marine hijackings and hostage-takings threatened all forms of shipping, ranging from super tankers to small yachts, and led to the establishment of an international counter-piracy operation, involving the navies of NATO, the European Union, the United States and a host of countries, at an estimated annual cost of more than US$1 billion.

Deadly Waters seeks to explain how and why piracy in Somalia has emerged so dramatically in recent years. With considerable courage and resourcefulness, Bahadur ventures to one of the most dangerous countries in the world and spends six weeks conducting fieldwork in Puntland, an autonomous region in north-eastern Somalia where many pirate gangs are based. The author sits down and talks with some pirates and even chews khat (the local drug of choice) with them. As an upshot, Bahadur is able to shed light on the lives of these pirates. He finds out how they spend their money, what they think, and why they are prepared to risk their lives in near suicidal missions. In addition, Bahadur talks to security personnel charged with combating piracy, and former pirate hostages who lived on ships in captivity for months while awaiting news of a ransom.

This research effort enables the author to advance some key arguments. Bahadur indicates that there is a certain amount of collusion between the pirates and the revenue-starved government in Puntland; that despite rumours and much speculation, there seems to be little or no connection between pirates and Islamic terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab; and that pirates are in this for the money and tend to prefer, whenever possible, to hijack unarmed boas.

Deadly Waters has a number of real strengths. First, it gives us a clear and detailed insight into the origins of Somali piracy. Bahadur persuasively argues that the problem of piracy lies on the land rather than the sea. More specifically, it is inextricably linked to the national and international circumstances surrounding the collapse of Siad Barre's government in 1991. Clan factionalism had helped to...