After Lupita Nyong’o, CNN Focuses On Yet another East African Oscar Nominee

After carrying out a feature on Lupita Nyong’o and her effect on the Kenya Film Industry, this week on CNN International’s ‘Inside Africa’, host Soni Methu goes on a journey on discovery with  the Oscar-nominated actor who made his name as Tom Hanks’ Somali pirate captor in the award-winning 2013 film, ‘Captain Philips’.

23 years ago, Barkhad Abdi and his mother fled Somalia to escape the violence of the country’s civil war, travelling to the safety of the United States. Now for the first time, and joined by ‘Inside Africa’ and Methu, he returns to discover how life has changed in his native land.

“Somalia is my home country,” Abdi tells the programme. “I wanted to highlight some of the positive sides of Somalia…that the media doesn’t see and I wanted to see for myself.”

‘Inside Africa’ accompanies Abdi as he meets the fishermen of Bosaso, the main port of Somalia’s Puntland state, who have been faced recently with dwindling catches.

Though fish stocks are more plentiful in Somalia than in many places in the world, not everyone is benefitting – well-equipped foreign vessels are overfishing the waters, leaving little for the locals.

This has been historically a major cause of the rise of Somalian pirate gangs, as groups of struggling fishermen turned to taking prisoners for ransom.

While multinational patrols have ensured that piracy in the region has all but stopped, there are many who fear that it may return if nothing is done to curb uncontrolled fishing by foreign vessels.

Inland from the coast the climate of Puntland is harsh and arid with around half the population being nomadic cattle and goat famers. In recent times though drought and increasing temperatures have made things more and more difficult for those who raise animals here.

See Also:Lupita Nyong’o and Her Effect on the Kenyan Film Industry

But hope has arrived, as ‘Inside Africa’ and Abdi discover, with aid organisations who are helping to build dams and irrigation systems and dig wells which are enabling them to better feed their livestock and to farm crops, both of which will make a hugely positive contribution to the economy of Somalia.

As Methu and Abdi return to the port of Bosaso from which he fled over two decades ago, the actor reflects on his journey from the Somalia to Yemen to the United States and back again.

He shares with Methu how his experience of the country and its civil war informed his ability to play the real-life role of pirate Abduwali Abdiqadir Muse in ‘Captain Philips’.

“I could understand him. I could empathise with him,” Abdi says of the role which propelled him to worldwide fame. “He was a young man lacking an opportunity that had basically grew up in a shattered country and he see the gun as the solution.”

Despite this, Abdi has found much to be hopeful of on his return to the land of his birth. Somalia has become more peaceful prosperous, thanks in no small part to the Somalian diaspora of which he is a leading member.

“I was very impressed of all the hard work that most people in Somalia are doing with nothing. They’re working hard, from farmers to business people,” Abdi tells ‘Inside Africa’.

”There’s a lot of rebuilding…the country is coming back slowly one step at a time. I want to be part of the change. That’s what I’m hoping for.”

To see Barkhad Abdi’s return to Somalia, tune-in to ‘Inside Africa’ on CNN International, DStv Channel 401 at the following times:

Friday 20 February: 1930

Saturday 21 February: 2030
Monday 23 February: 0330
Tuesday 24 February: 1130

Incase You Missed it :Lupita Nyong’o Speaks Bluntly About Her Dad to CNN