A word to say on #Cadaanstudies
I have been closely looking into the tweets, articles and sayings on #Cadaanstudies for the past couple of days, and it tenderly captured my attention. I have several points to say here;
- The notion of the current Somali Scholarship in the Social Studies.
- The absence of the Local people from the discussion
- The debate of Somalilandarizing the case
- My stand on the issue
The attention of absence of any single Somali scholar from the editorial board of #SJAS and the followed response of the German Anthropologist was the starting point of this debate. What actually made the whole issue blow up to an unexpected extent was the language used by Dr. Markus at the beginning of the discussion to describe the state of Somali scholarship especially youth plus the fact that he is entitled on the senior membership of the journal. Somali people in general have undergone serious, successive and ‘oday ka sheekee’ situations which made them one of the most dispersed and confused societies in the whole world. In the early 70s, 80s and 90s a large number of the Somali population did flee to an external safer places – mainly to the west and to the Arab countries. Neither those who had come out nor those who stayed at home got the chance to properly get themselves educate except a little number of both. A good example of that is the number of elites in both outside and inside of the country – academically, politically and socially.
This gave a good space to ‘other’ scholars (no matter who those ‘other’ scholars could be – white or black, muslim or non-muslim) which led to their domination in the field. I am not commenting on their scholarly work as they have done it already but I believe that it was biased due to that they had personal attitudes to look on the topic plus the reality that they weren’t Somalis. Recently, very rare of Somali scholars studied their social and historical transformations although they did not produce a work which can be internationally regarded as sociological civilization. This is because of three reasons; they don’t regard/study the knowledge as it is (seriously). they were/are socially disintegrated and everyone’s mind is dominated by his clannish hallucinations and non-factual/unscientific conclusions.
Yet, I believe that Somalis are intelligent enough and capable of having all that it takes to be an international scholar in not only social studies but knowledge in general. I also believe that according to their historical past and current situation which is not better than their past, they had made a good move towards knowledge but not knowledge production. They mainly study for a ‘reason’ and that reason is not to be studiously dominant in that field. That’s why you will find someone who is telling you that s/he finished school like 40 or 50 years ago and never wrote a word from his intellectual mind. Unfortunately, you will also find young people who regard themselves as experts/specialists but never wrote an academic paper. It is because of that we prefer talking more and run for food more than we sit and think on an academic/scholarly level. Filibustering, actually!
By the way, this has triggered on the wake up of the Somali scholars, especially the young. The state of the Somali academia needs colossal advancement. Those who have had the opportunity to study themselves at international level must come back and compel the change into the minds of the young.
The local is absent from the discussion. Why is that? Why just Non-somalis and Diaspora people are making the biggest contribution on not only this debate but the vast domination of the Somali academic production and debates. I have seen few local colleagues who are just commenting in short reflections – which, unfortunately shows their lack of information about what is going on. This kind of an intellectual gap concerning the local scholarship paucity purely narrates from the educational curriculum and the mentality back home. Despite that fact, why even Anti-Somalilanderizing the case? I am still wondering why some of us are accusing this campaign as ‘Anti-Somaliland’! The case is about ‘Somalis’ and ‘Somali Scholarship’, and I believe a position like this, there is no need for geographical consideration – Of course, we can have different opinions and approaches on the topic.
‘One odd value that Somali academicians and scholars have is that they always fail to differentiate their personal stands and standards from the point of discussion/topic. We are always emotional and our emotions arise stronger than the scientific understanding we have – in Social science, particularly’. These are the words of a young female Somali author living in Hargeisa, Hamda Mohamed.
In conclusion, I would say, to have a debate like this, it created the chance for questions and the opportunity to set eyes on paramount academic transformations, both in local scholastic institutions and the contribution of the dispersed Somali communities around the globe to the pool of ‘their’ sociological production. Let us all produce the ‘standard’ work and the founding fathers of our cultural, historical, social and academic hegemonies. The Diaspora and the elites need to come back and create platforms, curriculums, and methodologies that CAN work for the advancement of our knowledge along the contextual consideration that we had through the years. We need to work together and shape our future more than we are interested in our past.
Thank you,
Abdirahman Saed
Hargeisa