| 1964 | Secondary schooling at Magistrale, Mogadiscio |
| 1966-1970 | BA Panjab University, Chandigarh, India |
| 1971-1974 | Lecturer, National University of Somalia |
| 1981 | Guest Professor, Bayreuth University, Germany |
| 1981-1983 | Ass. Professor, University of Jos, Nigeria |
| 1989 | Writer-in-residence, University of Minnesota |
| 1988-1990 | Makarere University, Uganda |
| 1991 | Brown University |
| 1996 | Rhodes Scholar, St Antony's College, Oxford |
| 1997 | Visiting Professor, English, University of Texas at Austin |
| 2000 | Doctor of Literature (honoris causa), University of Kent, Canterbury |
| 2006 | Ecole des Haute Etudes en Science Sociale, Paris |
| 2007 | Visiting Professor, Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin |
