A close-up look at Somalia's pirate class

The Life: Pirate attacks have become a multi-million dollar business in Somalia, and the topic is explored in-depth in a book written by Jay Bahadur.

The Pirates of Somalia by Jay Bahadur

Q&A: Writing the book

Why did Mr Bahadur choose Somalia? He writes that the country had commanded a "soft spot" in his heart ever since he studied political science in university.

When did he travel there? During his reporting, he visited Puntland, an area with countless pirates, from January to March and June to July of 2009.

With whom did he speak? Many pirates, some of whom he managed to photograph for the book. He also interviewed government officials, scholars, former hostages, soldiers and jailers in the industry.

Review of: The Pirates of Somalia by Jay Bahadur

One day, Jay Bahadur was a recent university graduate hoping to get into journalism but working on "tedious" reports for a market research firm. But after his craving to break into journalism turned more serious, he flew into Somalia on a quest to meet present-day pirates.

"Somalia was a good candidate, jockeying with Iraq and Afghanistan for the title of the most dangerous country in the world," Mr Bahadur writes in The Pirates of Somalia.

A lot of what Mr Bahadur tried to do while reporting this book, and the situations he got himself into, seem to stem from a naive itching for adventure. Yet he ultimately achieves what he set out to do, which is to capture how pirates live on and off their boats - examining how they spend their ransom earnings on cars and clothes, and the social status and stigma they earn from doing so.

"In short, what makes them human beings, not simply the AK-47-toting thugs who appear in feature articles," he writes.

Mr Bahadur also ends up painting a full picture of the business of piracy, including a payroll breakdown of how much ransom money different crew members earned after particular attacks.

One operation's commanderin chief earned US$900,000 (Dh3.3 million), while its accountant got just $60,000 and the head cook a mere $20,000. He says "these figures debunk the myth that piracy turns the average Somali teenager into an overnight millionaire".

He also chronicles the progression of piracy, from those who strongly believed they were protecting Somalia's coastal waters from illegal fishers in the mid-1990s and mid-2000s to a so-called third wave of piracy, which "has consisted largely of opportunists without fishing backgrounds - often disaffected youth from the large inland nomad population."

Overall, the book provides an interesting read about some complex characters, even if the author sometimes comes across as an opportunistic adventure-seeker himself.

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Source: The New York Times

The Quote: Pirates make good copy: there is something about them that animates the romantic imagination. - Jay Bahadur, author of The Pirates of Somalia