Farah grew up at a time of deep poverty and instability in the Horn of Africa, where criminal networks smuggling resources and people flourished
When Sir Mo Farah was living on the Horn of Africa in the late 1980s and early 90s, it was one of the most unstable and troubled parts of the continent.
Farah was born in 1983, at a moment of mounting chaos. He has said that he lived for several years in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, when very young, though he was not born there. The city was known in the 1970s for its beaches, seafood and architecture and was still a destination for adventurous travellers in the early years of the following decade.
