#cadaanstudies

[typewriterdaily]

An open letter to Markus Hoehne and the Somaliland Journal of African Studies, signed by over 350 Somali academics, researchers, professionals, students, concerned community members and non-Somali academic allies — primarily in African Studies and other area studies fields — circulated widely in March 2015 and articulated the #CadaanStudies critique: that the exclusions of one academic journal and the troubling statements of one anthropologist were symptoms of the current state of Somali Studies, and indicated the urgency for a discussion of the conditions of knowledge production about Somalis and the Somali territories, and the relations of power underpinning it. Through this critical intervention of young Somali scholars, #CadaanStudies generated conversations about the histories and politics of knowledge production in a mass movement across social media and beyond, growing in the weeks and months afterwards. We historicized the colonial context within which research about Somalis was made possible, and the ways in which these colonial discourses and imperatives are maintained, if reconfigured, in the present. We analyzed how this history has structurally positioned Somalis as objects of knowledge rather than its legitimate producers, and how this accords privileges to non-Somali researchers while marginalizing Somali researchers. We spoke of the disciplinary, ideological and institutional interests shaping knowledge production about Somalis. We argued for the need to decolonize Somali Studies.

Safia Aidid in “After #CadaanStudies,” The New Inquiry

[typewriterdaily]

In late March 2015, the hashtag #CadaanStudies — translating to “white studies” — initiated a conversation about power and knowledge production in the current academic field of Somali Studies. It began in response to the recently launched Somaliland Journal of African Studies (SJAS), an academic journal which had no Somali authors, editorial or advisory board members, despite describing itself as having been founded collaboratively with students and scholars at the University of Hargeisa. German anthropologist and journal advisory board member Markus Hoehne reacted publicly to the hashtag, dismissing its critique to argue that Somalis were not marginalized in Somali Studies but simply lacked the intellectual interest, academic credentials, and sufficient work ethic to produce quality scholarship worthy of inclusion in an academic journal about themselves.

Safia Aidid in “After #CadaanStudies,” The New Inquiry

This is a really important essay. Please read it.

[groovyglobalgal-blog]

[africanperspectives]

#cadaanstudies and the New Somali Studies

Last month, the Somaliland Journal of African Studies (SJAS) was launched with no Somali academics or researchers on the editorial and advisory boards. This raised a very necessary debate on the continued whiteness of academia, and more specifically on the production of knowledge on and about Africa.  It prompted Safia Aidid to start the hashtag #cadaanstudies as a way to engage Somali academics in a conversation on the historical representations of Somalis and Somalia, and create a space for postcolonial and critical academic work by and for Somalis.

Listen to our interview with Safia Aidid here Read Safia’s article in The New Inquiry

Check out the storify page

Join a discussion on #cadaanstudies in Toronto on May 2nd at 10:45am at York University.