MedeshiPeace in Somaliland: An Indigenous Approach to State-Building’ documentary
Somaliland Focus (UK) and DPU, UCL
‘Peace in Somaliland: An Indigenous Approach to State-
Building’ documentary, followed by a panel discussion
Tuesday 3rd March 2009, 6pm
Pearson Lecture Theatre, Pearson Building
(enter through Main Gate of UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT)
Somaliland Focus (UK) and the Development Planning Unit (DPU) of UCL invite you to a showing of the documentary ‘Peace in Somaliland: An Indigenous Approach to State-Building’, followed by a panel discussion on Tuesday 3 March 2009 at the Pearson Lecture Theatre, Gower Street, London.
The film is based on research undertaken by the Academy for Peace and development in Hargeysa, focussing on the process that followed the collapse of the Siyad Barre regime in 1991. A total of 39 peace and reconciliation conferences prepared the ground for five national and regional meetings between February 1991 and February 1997.
After the showing there will be short presentation from Michael Walls (DPU, UCL), who was part of the research team; Rashiid Sheikh Abdilahi ‘Gadhweyne’ (sociologist and expert on Somali culture) and Rhoda M Ibrahim (development worker).
The meeting will be chaired by Sally Healy OBE (Associate Fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House).
How to get to the Pearson Building
The closest mainline rail stations are Euston and Kings Cross/St Pancras - both within walking distance. Nearest tube stations are Euston Square (Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City Lines), Warren Street (Victoria and Northern Lines) and Goodge Street (Northern Line).
For further directions click here:
http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/contacts-and-location/map.jpg/image_view_fullscreen
Biographies
Rashiid Sheikh Abdilahi ‘Gadhweyne’ was brought up in a Somali nomadic family.
His primary and intermediate education was in Adadle and Burao Religious Institute. In 1963, he travelled to Egypt for secondary and higher education in Cairo. In 1970, he graduated from Cairo University specialising in sociology.
Rashiid has extensive knowledge of Somali education and culture through his work with the Department of Education where he headed the Folklore Section of the Cultural Department in 1972, as well as from 1976 to 1982, when he worked as a journalist and lecturer for the Somali National University. He also worked with the Academy of Science and Culture. In 1982, he was one of the founders of SNM (Somali National Movement) in Ethiopia which was one of the opposition organisations fighting the regime of Syad Barre. Within the SNM, he occupied the positions of Director of Radio Halgan and Secretary of Foreign Relations.
After the declaration of independence in Somaliland in 1991, he played a key role in peace-making activities as a member of Somaliland Peace Committee. Since 1998, he has been the Chair of the Somaliland Commission for Investigations of War Crimes.
Michael Walls lectures in Development Management at the Development Planning Unit of University College London (UCL) and over the past four years has undertaken research in political science with a specific focus on the emergence of a system of state in Somaliland. He chairs the Anglo-Somali Society and Somaliland Focus (UK) and is the Administrative Secretary to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Somaliland in the UK Parliament.
Rhoda M Ibrahim has been working for the past 25 years for the development, relief and rehabilitation of war-torn communities in Somaliland, Djibouti and Yemen together with United Nations and other international organisations.
Rhoda has been involved with Somaliland issues since 1990 when she came to the UK as a refugee and helped to set up and manage SOMRA to raise funds for people in refugee camps and those displaced inside the country. She was the first Somaliland development worker for ICD/CIIR, now Progressio. Rhoda established the Capacity Building programme to help emerging local organisations, assisting over 400 local NGOs and their leaders to establish umbrella organisations such as Awdal Association of Indigenous Organisations (AAIN), Nagaad, COSONGO and SAMATALIS (the first human rights group in Somaliland). Rhoda is also trained as conflict transformation and peace building advocate.
Sally Healy is an Associate Fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House. She was formerly an East Africa specialist at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Most recently, she led a collaborative study of conflict in the Horn of Africa, the findings of which were published by Chatham House in June 2008.
