THE BEST of this book is the preface and first chapter, which clearly set out how the author intends to frame the post-colonial history of Somalia —  a country, he argues, that does not exist in reality even if recognised internationally.  

Thereafter, unfortunately, it’s pretty much downhill as Gerard Prunier leads the reader into an impenetrable forest of clan chiefs, warlords and religious groups, all lost in a jumbled narrative that too often assumes prior knowledge and frequently flits backwards and forwards in time.  

Prunier may know his subject inside out but it’s difficult to see the wood for the trees, partly because he fails from the outset to provide a simple and chronological summary of what has happened in Somaliland since the end of British and Italian rule or to paint a full enough picture of how society in the country functions, in particular through its clans.  

Working from such an unstable base, he makes what is already a fiendishly confusing picture appear even more complicated. Without the help even of an illustrative map or two, the bulk of the book is so unclear in its middle section that it’s tempting to give up.

Then, suddenly, the mist clears and for a couple of chapters there’s lucidity, with events around the country’s return to relative peace in the 1990s laid out in simple terms. Sadly, that clarity is fleeting and once again the fog descends as the book moves towards its end.

Prunier has some interesting things to say about the world’s failure to understand Somalia and its unwillingness to support some of the good things that have been going on there. He’s also vocal about the UN’s illogical obsession with trying to impose the concept of a united Somalia on the Horn of Africa.

But trying to cut through to the foundations of those conclusions is difficult indeed. 

Published by Hurst, £45.