Silent University Hamburg Public Seminar (4)

Tuesday, August 4, 2015, 19 Uhr
Somaliland: strategies of self-determination.
Lecture by Ismail Mosa (consultant, Silent University Hamburg)
In English language and consecutively interpreted into German.

W3 – Werkstatt für internationale Kultur und Politik e.V., Nernstweg 32-34, 22765 Hamburg

International media reports about Somalia focussed on fighting, chaos and the rise of power of the Muslim extremists Al-shabab in recent years. But both the media and the international community are missing an important and more peaceful story – that of Somaliland located in the north of Somalia. The current political transformation there could be viewed as a role model for the fight against extremism in the Muslim world.

In his lecture Ismail Mosa will expose the strategies of Somalilands success as a society-led, bottom-up process of democratization. It stands in sharp contrast to the repeated failure of international attempts to construct a Western-style state in the rest of Somalia. In contrast to most postcolonial states in Africa and the Middle East, Somaliland took the chance to administer itself using customary norms, values, and relationships. Its integration of traditional ways of governance within a modern state apparatus resulted in greater cohesion and legitimacy.

Ismail Mosa (born 1983 in Hargeisa, Somalia) is based in Hamburg. He studied sustainability management at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany and works as a manager for sustaiability in local and international contexts.