Today I want to acknowledge the doors @ygaraad has opened for me in accessing, previously inaccessible to me, internal Somali political dynamics. I wandered into his Bush House office as a postgrad student in search of material for my thesis on #Somalia state collapse. A thread

Instead of just getting the info for my thesis, he ended up pushing me back to the Somali community I had cut off ties with for years! He introduced me a massive network of #Somalia interest groups, activists, politicians, all sorts of Somalis crossing or living in London!!

I had planned to only research for my thesis but limit my interaction with my fellow crazies, but Yusuf got me too involved to take a step back...He facilitated my first return to #Mogadishu, got me to campaign for him, and the rest is history!! I am both grateful and annoyed.

Somalia turned my life upside down, very suddenly and violently!! I spent the rest of my life trying to understand why and who and what. I did both my degrees in politics in the UK but nothing could have given me the answers I needed like the experience I have had in #Somalia!!!

@ygaraad has practically connected all the dots for me, from meeting him in London, working with him at the BBC, facilitating my return to Somalia, with Cabdiqaadir Yaxya, and learning so much about Somali society and politics through working on his campaign and since! Thank you!