# Jama Musse Jama (Jaamac Muuse Jaamac)

> Jama Musse Jama (born 1967): ethnomathematician, founder of the Hargeysa International Book Fair.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/jama-musse-jama/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is he?

Jama Musse Jama is a Somali ethnomathematician and author born in 1967 in Hargeisa ([Wikipedia, Jama Musse Jama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama_Musse_Jama)). [Somaliland](/en/states/somaliland-1991-to-2026/) declared independence in 1991; Israel recognised it on 26 December 2025; most states and the AU regard it as part of Somalia.

## Study

He studied mathematics for four and a half years at the Somali National University in Mogadishu, then studied mathematics at the University of Pisa ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama_Musse_Jama)). He earned a PhD in computational linguistics at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" (same source). See [Somalis in Italy](/en/diaspora/italy/).

## Research and books

At Pisa he began researching traditional Somali games and the history of mathematics in the Horn of Africa ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama_Musse_Jama)). His books include *Shax: the preferred game of our camel-herders* (2002), *Layli Goobalay* (2002) and *Gobannimo Bilaash Maaha / Freedom is not free* (2007) (same source). He built the Somali Corpus of digital texts for language research (same source).

## Culture and literacy

He founded and organises the Hargeysa International Book Fair, and in 2014 founded the Hargeysa Cultural Centre, which he directs ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama_Musse_Jama)). He became a research associate at SOAS in 2019 and a senior research associate at University College [London](/en/diaspora/london/) in 2020 (same source). The Nigerian Guardian wrote about his publishing work in 2026 ([The Guardian Nigeria, 3 January 2026](https://guardian.ng/art/the-new-african-publishers-towards-promised-land/)).

## In short

A Hargeisa-born mathematician who studies Somali games and runs the Hargeysa book fair and cultural centre.

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