Jama Musse Jama

Jama Musse Jama (Somali: Jaamac Muuse Jaamac, Arabic: جامع موسى جامع‎‎) (b. 1967) is a prominent Somali ethnomathematician and author. He is notable for his research on traditional Somali boardgames such as Shax.

Biography

Jama was born in 1967 in Hargeisa, Somalia where he had his primary and secondary education. He then left for Mogadishu and attended the Somali National University, where he studied Mathematics for four and half years. Fluent in Italian, Jama left Hargeisa to study as a mathematician at Pisa University in Italy. He has particular interest in civil liberties and he is the author (or co-author) of six books, two of them on Somali traditional games.

At Pisa University, Jama began researching traditional Somali games as well as the history of mathematics in the Horn of Africa, a topic which he has written about in several journals.^[1] His interests include Education in Somalia,^[2] and as an activist, Jama is deeply involved in the affairs of the Somali diaspora during festivals^[3] and conferences which he chairs or is present as a key contributor. A specific interest of Jama's is to promote Somali language, literature, and promoting reading, he is the founder and the organiser of Hargeysa International Book Fair.^[4]

Work

Articles (selected)

• Can a Computer compose a Somali poem after 40 years of Somali Language written experience?
• The role of mathematics in ethnomathematics Education: Cases from the Horn of Africa
• Creating a Mathematical Terminology: The Somalia Case with F Favilli
• Linguistic and Cultural Aspects in Teaching Mathematics with F Favilli
• Mathematics under an African acacia tree with F Favilli

Books

• Cittadinanza è partecipazione, Bianca&Volta Edizioni, Trieste, 2013, ISBN 978-88-96400-50-0 (ePub ISBN 978-88-96400-51-7)
• Gobannimo Bilaash Maaha / Freedom is not free, 2007. ISBN 88-88934-06-5.
• A NOTE ON MY TEACHER’S GROUP - News Report of an Injustice, 2003. ISBN 88-88934-01-4.
• Shax: the preferred game of our camel-herders and other traditional African entertainments, 2002. ISBN 88-87332-05-3.
• Layli Goobalay: Variante Somala del Gioco Nazionale Africano, 2002, ISBN 88-88934-00-6.

Awards

• Cultura della Solidarietà, Pistoia, 29 June 2014. The organising committee commended him for his 'exemplary work promoting cultural knowledge and inquiry in Somaliland.'^[5][6]

References