Home Sweet Home: Changing Times Bring Somali Diaspora Back | Think Africa Press

Home Sweet Home: Changing Times Bring Somali Diaspora Back | Think Africa Press

“A cappuccino here is more expensive than any other coffee in the world,” said Mohamed Ali as he addressed the audience of the second TEDx conference held in Somalia's capital.
“An espresso machine uses a lot of electricity and Mogadishu is the most expensive city in the world by kilowatt/hour,” he said, introducing the story of Ahmed, a returning diaspora member who partnered with local engineer Isse to create a coal-powered coffee machine prototype. “Ahmed now has the cheapest espresso in Mogadishu and Isse has 100 machines that he rents for $100 dollars a month.”
On August 31 a TEDx conference - the ‘ideas worth spreading’ event - was held in Mogadishu, the capital of a country that is still considered by some a ‘failed state’. Despite this, spirits were high as the speakers, mostly returning diaspora members, articulated their hopeful visions of a new Somalia.
But this time optimism was accompanied by concrete examples of change in the wake of the installation of the country's first permanent government in over two decades. There is a definite feeling that something has changed or is changing and this is bringing back some of the 1.5 million Somalis living abroad, like Ahmed, or like Ali, a US-trained human rights lawyers returning to help aspirant business men and women, especially young Somalis.