# The Pirates of Somalia (2011) by Jay Bahadur: inside the pirate world of Puntland

> Jay Bahadur's The Pirates of Somalia (2011): months in Puntland with pirates and the pirate leader Boyah, what he found in Eyl, and how reviewers responded.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/books/the-pirates-of-somalia-bahadur/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## The book

**[The Pirates of Somalia](/en/society/films-about-somalia/): Inside Their Hidden World** is a book by the Canadian journalist **Jay Bahadur**, published in 2011. A UK edition appeared as **Deadly Waters: Inside the Hidden World of Somalia's Pirates** ([The National](https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/books/deadly-waters-meet-somalia-s-pirates-1.475580); [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/search?q=Deadly+Waters+Bahadur)).

## What it covers

Bahadur spent several months living in **Puntland**, the north-eastern Somali state, where many of the pirate groups of the late 2000s were based ([NPR](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/138514116); [The National](https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/a-close-up-look-at-somalia-s-pirate-class-1.426005)). He interviewed pirates, financiers, officials and people in coastal towns about how hijackings were organised, paid for and ended with ransoms ([NPR](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/138514116)).

The book's main figure is **Boyah**, a pirate leader from the coastal town of **Eyl**, who told Bahadur he had turned away from piracy; at the time of a 2011 NPR interview Boyah was in prison ([The New Republic](https://newrepublic.com/article/94939/jay-bahadur-the-pirates-of-somalia); [NPR](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/138514116)). Bahadur reported that Eyl was poor and had none of the "pirate mansions" that some reports described ([Going Sub-Saharan, review](https://goingsubsaharan.blogspot.com/2014/08/book-review-pirates-of-somalia.html)). Puntland is covered on [Puntland](/en/states/puntland/).

## How it was received

- Joshua Hammer, in the New York Times Book Review, wrote that Bahadur debunks myths about the roots and practices of Somali pirates ([Barnes and Noble, quoting the review](https://valsec.barnesandnoble.com/w/pirates-of-somalia/jay-bahadur/1100401877)).
- The New Republic called it engaging but flawed, and pointed to factual errors, including a wrong date for the civil war ([The New Republic](https://newrepublic.com/article/94939/jay-bahadur-the-pirates-of-somalia)).
- The National (Abu Dhabi) wrote that, although Bahadur got inside the pirates' world, he did not give a vivid picture of what was happening there ([The National](https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/books/deadly-waters-meet-somalia-s-pirates-1.475580)).

Later academic books on Somali piracy include Jatin Dua's Captured at Sea (2019) and Awet Weldemichael's [Piracy in Somalia](/en/books/piracy-in-somalia-weldemichael/) (2019), listed on [Books about Somalis since 2006](/en/history/books-about-somalis-since-2006/).

## Where to read it

- In a library: [WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=The+Pirates+of+Somalia+Bahadur)

## Related pages

- [Puntland](/en/states/puntland/)
- [Books about Somalis since 2006](/en/history/books-about-somalis-since-2006/)

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