Jama Musse Jama (b. 1967) is a prominent Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 ethnomathematician

Ethnomathematics

In mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture . Often associated with "cultures without written expression" , it may also be defined as "'the mathematics which is practised among identifiable cultural groups'" In mathematics education,...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. He is notable for his research on traditional Somali

Culture of Somalia

The culture of Somalia is an amalgamation of traditions indigenously developed or accumulated over a timeline spanning several millennia of Somali civilization's interaction with neighbouring and far away civilizations such as Ethiopia, Yemen, India and Persia....

 boardgames such as Shax

Shax (board game)

Shax is a board game played in the Horn of Africa . Its origins dating back centuries, it is still popular today....

.

Biography

Jama was born in 1967 in Hargeisa

Hargeisa

Hargeisa is a city in the northwestern Woqooyi Galbeed region of Somalia. With a population of approximately 2 million residents, it is the second largest city in the country. Hargeisa is the capital of Somaliland, a self-declared republic that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region...

, Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

 where he had his primary and secondary education. He then left for Mogadishu

Mogadishu

Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....

 and attended the Somali National University, where he studied Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 for four and half years. Fluent in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Jama left Hargeisa to study as a mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

 at Pisa University in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. 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

Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...

, a topic which he has written about in several journals. His interests include Education in Somalia

Education in Somalia

Education in Somalia refers to the academic system within Somalia. The Ministry of Education is officially responsible for education in Somalia, with about 15% of the nation's budget allocated to scholastic instruction. The autonomous Puntland and Somaliland macro-regions maintain their own...

, and as an activist, Jama is deeply involved in the affairs of the Somali diaspora

Somali diaspora

The Somali diaspora refers to expatriate Somalis who reside in areas of the world that have traditionally not been inhabited by their ethnic group...

 during festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

s and conferences which he chairs or is present as a key contributor. An 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.

Articles

• 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

• 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.