September 11, 2012

Andrew R. Butler

Good news: Somalia, for the first time in a long time, had a successful election and a peaceful change of power. The new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud,  is an activist and academic, inspiring hope of further stability for the failed nation.

Bad news: He’s also an old-timey pirate king, which is awkward since Somalia has become well known in the past decade for groups of citizens driven to contemporary piracy due to the hopelessness of their conditions. Political Subversities obtained this rare photo of the new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in his full old-timey pirate garb.