Somali Studies Conference Highlights Tensions in Academic Accountability

[Deeq A.]

President Mohamud attended the opening ceremony of the controversial Somali Studies Conference in Mogadishu.

Mogadishu (PP Editorial) —   The Somali Studies conference in Mogadishu highlights the pervasive issues of academic malpractice and intellectual timidity affecting the Somali academic community. The Somali Studies International Association (SSIA) only belatedly distanced itself from the conference organised by Federal Government of Somalia, just days before the event began. The Ministry of Education disclosed the conference dates merely a week before its opening, and public notices about the event appeared on social media only last week. Farah Abdulkadir, the Education Minister, who oversaw the conference preparations, allegedly kept details secret to avoid SSIA’s objections.

Prominent Somali scholars, including Professor Abdi Samatar, Professor Ali Jimale Ahmed and Professor Mohamed Haji Mukhtar, have signed a letter protesting the Federal Government’s usurpation of SSIA’s mandate. Professor Mukhtar condemned the presence of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamsa Barre at the event. “It is scandalous to organise an illegal Somali Studies conference. The President and the Prime Minister attended the opening of this so-called conference,” Professor Mukhtar told a Somali news outlet.

The irony is that President Mohamud, who now holds a PhD, has embargoed his dissertation, Challenges of Clan Politics in State-building: A Case Study of Somalia. He has not clarified whether he used classified government documents for his research. Some scholars argue that discussing politics through the lens of clan identity excuses politicians from accountability for political violence and corruption. Somali scholars have yet to publicly call on President Mohamud to make his dissertation available to researchers. Speculation persists that his dissertation may have departed from rigorous academic standards, raising concerns about the University of  Peace’s decision to grant an indefinite embargo at his request.

The SSIA shares responsibility for this crisis, having lowered membership standards and adopted a complacent attitude toward researchers like President Mohamud, who has written an anthropological study of Somali clans. In 2011, Professor Abdi Samatar criticised former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo for a dissertation suggesting that some Somali clans benefited from ties with European colonisers. The SSIA must undergo a period of introspection and recommit to upholding academic accountability among Somali scholars.

© Puntland Post, 2024

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