Bernhard Helander

Bernhard Helander (1958–2001) was an anthropologist and well known scholar on Somalia. He published on Somali pastoralism, politics and power, poverty, Somali medicine, kinship, Somali sociability and modes of communication, as well as contemporary political processes, welfare, development and peace in Somalia. Before his death, Helander was a lecturer in cultural anthropology at Uppsala University.

He started his research in Somalia in 1982 and rose to become one of the world's major experts on Somali culture and society. He served in the early 1990s in the UN thinkthank headed by ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun. He ed-ited the Somalia News Update, an Internet newsletter, which in the 1990s was very influential in disseminating knowledge and forming opinion on current affairs in Somali. During these years he also served in the UN think tank on Somalia.