A Double Heritage of Democracy

Our call for papers included two basic statements:

1) The recent tremendous political upheavals in the Horn of Africa have masked the very real democratic traditions of the Somalis and many other peoples of the region.

2) A number of the refugees from the Horn of Africa have arrived in the Nordic countries, which are internationally famed for their democratic political institutions. In this context it is noteworthy that Finland gave women the right to vote in 1906, as the first country in Europe and the second in the world.

In view of these circumstances, we considered it necessary and fruitful to critically examine the extent and limitations of these two democratic traditions, to see how they inform our actions and influence our choices and decisions for the future.

The approach was multidisciplinary and included issues related to ecology and environment, language and literature, education, politics, law, history and health care. Family, age, gender, generation, social organisation, clan, poverty and health are all relevant issues in widening our perspective on the concept of “democracy”.

The workshop was highly inspiring and intensive, including two keynotes lectures, 21 individual paper presentations and a vivid and thought provoking panel discussion with distinguished international scholars. In addition to these there were about 50-70 other participants who actively took part in lectures and evening programmes. Dr. Ali Moussa Iye (Unesco, France) and Dr. Hamdi Mohamed (Carleton University, Canada) gave the keynote lectures, and Professor Lee Cassanelli (University of Pennsylvania, USA) acted as a commentator and a resource person for the workshop. Evening programmes consisted of the above-mentioned panel discussion on the topic “Export/Import of Democracy?” at Helsinki International Cultural Centre Caisa and it was open to the general public. Moreover, two informal get-together events were arranged for network members: one in co-operation with Luckan, Finland-Swedish information and culture centre, and the other one together with Nuoriso Kanava youth association and the Finnish Somalia Network.

The workshop significantly promoted networking of Nordic researchers in the field of Somali studies. The workshop also raised a lot of interest among the Finnish media, and keynote speakers as well as some other workshop participants were interviewed for the radio, television and print media.

Please, find more information at http://blogit.helsinki.fi/HOA2006/index.htm

A selection of the workshop papers will be published as revised articles in a book edited by Muddle Suzanne Lilius and Marja Tiilikainen. We aim to publish the book in spring 2008. Workshop II will be arranged in Oslo in 2008.

Organizing committee of the Workshop I:
Petri Hautaniemi, Researcher, University of Helsinki, Finland (petri.hautaniemi@helsinki.fi)
Marja Tiilikainen, Researcher, University of Helsinki, Finland (marja.tiilikainen@helsinki.fi)
Muddle Suzanne Lilius, Independent researcher, Finland (som_research@hotmail.com)
Joakim Gundel, Researcher, Denmark/Kenya (katuni@vip.cybercity.dk)

We thank all our sponsors and partners that made the event possible:
the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala
Institute of Development Studies, University of Helsinki
Academy of Finland
The International Cultural Centre Caisa, City of Helsinki
Luckan (Swedish information and culture centre)
Kanava ry (Finnish Somali youth organisation)
Suomen Somalia-verkosto (Coordinating organisation for Somalia related development associations in Finland)