Educating Somalia for peace and stability

MI’s 5 Minutes of Fame: Securing Somalia’s place in global education and knowledge. Week 35, 2026. (See Somali language version, here). Some weeks leave behind more than photographs, meetings and travel memories. They force us to pause and ask what genuinely matters. For me, this week has been about education. It has been about universities, knowledge, international collaboration and a question that has occupied my thinking for many years: where does Somali higher education belong within the global academic community? My participation over the years in the Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN) Australia Forum, this year in Perth provided another opportunity to consider this question. This year’s forum was held at Edith Cowan University’s new Perth CBD campus on 1 September 2026. It brought together university leaders, researchers, policymakers and others interested in strengthening academic cooperation between Australia and Africa. The visit also continued a personal and intellectual journey that recently took me to Tokyo, where I researched the life and work of Ibrahim Meygag Samatar. The locations have changed from Tokyo to Perth, and next to Brisbane, but the central theme remains the same. Education matters. It matters not simply because universities award degrees. Universities are among the principal institutions through which humanity creates, tests, preserves, disseminates and applies knowledge. At their best, they connect generations, countries and cultures through a shared commitment to learning and intellectual inquiry. From Tokyo to Perth My encounter with the legacy of Ibrahim Meygag Samatar in Tokyo reminded me that education is not confined to classrooms, campuses or national borders. An academic life can connect distant societies and continue influencing people long after the individual has gone. Perth reinforced that lesson. One of the most encouraging developments for me was seeing Amoud University based in Boorame, Somalia become a member of AAUN. The network now formally lists Amoud among its African member institutions. This is significant. It is not merely another institutional name added to a membership page. It gives a Somali university an opportunity to participate in a network devoted to research collaboration, capacity-building and academic engagement between African and Australian universities. I welcomed the news with genuine excitement. I have wanted to see this kind of engagement for many years. I want Somali universities to develop serious and productive relationships with universities across Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. I want Somali academics to participate in international conferences, collaborative research projects, joint teaching programmes and global scholarly communities. Most importantly, I want Somali students to encounter the wider world of academia. Such access should not be unusual. It should not depend upon personal connections, luck or the ability to travel abroad. It should become a normal feature of Somali university education. Amoud University’s membership is one encouraging step. It must lead to practical results, including research partnerships, academic exchanges, staff development and meaningful opportunities for students. Membership alone is not achievement. What institutions do with membership is what matters. My own relationship with universities My interest in this subject is partly shaped by the different roles I have occupied within universities. I have been a student, staff member, technology director, fellow and researcher. These experiences, across four universities in Melbourne, have allowed me to view university life from several perspectives. As a student, I approached the university as someone searching for knowledge. As a staff member, I saw the institutional structures that make teaching and learning possible. As a technology director, I became interested in the infrastructure supporting research, communication and knowledge management. As a fellow and researcher, I became more concerned with how knowledge is created, examined, exchanged and eventually made useful to society. These roles were different, but they were never separate. Together, they taught me that a university is more than a collection of buildings, qualifications and administrative departments. A university is a community of inquiry. It is a place where inherited ideas should be examined rather than merely repeated. It is where new knowledge should be created rather than knowledge from elsewhere simply consumed. It is also where students should learn to question, investigate, communicate and contribute. This remains the standard against which universities should be judged. Somalia and the global knowledge system My ambition is not merely to see Somali universities become internationally connected for institutional prestige. Attractive websites, memoranda of understanding and ceremonial photographs do not necessarily produce genuine academic cooperation. The deeper objective must be to establish Somali higher education as an active part of the global knowledge system. That means producing knowledge, conducting credible research, sharing findings through respected academic and public platforms, managing knowledge so that it remains accessible to future generations, and it also means using knowledge to improve lives. Somali universities should not remain permanent consumers of theories, research findings and educational models developed elsewhere. They must contribute ideas grounded in Somali experiences. Somalia has valuable knowledge to offer in fields such as mobile finance, telecommunications, livestock management, climate adaptation, peacebuilding, migration, entrepreneurship, oral history and community resilience. Yet much of this knowledge remains undocumented, poorly connected to international research or interpreted by people with limited understanding of Somali society. That must change. Somali academics possess experience and insight that deserve a place in global scholarly conversations. The challenge is to build the research cultures, institutional structures and international relationships that allow their knowledge to travel. This is why networks such as AAUN matter. Established in 2012, AAUN connects universities across Australia and Africa through collaborative research, capacity-building and academic diplomacy. Its activities include annual forums, support for early-career researchers and the Partnership and Research Development Fund, which provides seed funding for joint research. These mechanisms create possibilities. Somali institutions must now turn those possibilities into measurable academic outcomes. A continuing journey The conversation does not end in Perth. In a few days, I will be in Brisbane for the Somali Global Diaspora event. That gathering will provide another opportunity to consider the relationship between Somali communities, education, knowledge and diaspora networks. Tokyo gave me one perspective. Perth gave me another. Brisbane will add a further chapter. To me, these are not separate journeys. They are parts of one continuing inquiry. Where do Somali universities belong within the global education system? How can they establish equitable partnerships with universities elsewhere? How can Somali students gain greater access to international academic communities? How can Somali scholars contribute knowledge rather than simply receive it? These questions are larger than any conference or institution. They concern the intellectual future of Somali society. A brief word about the video accompanying my posts. I have not worked professionally with video technology, but I understand cameras, production, editing and post-production. Yet, for these short introductions, I prefer something more direct. There is no second take, elaborate editing or technological magic. What you see is what I recorded live. It is simply me speaking to you about something I care deeply about. Consider your… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somalia.substack.com