Said Sheikh Samatar

Said Sheikh Samatar is professor of African history at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. Prior to this position, he worked at Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky. Coming to the United States as a refugee from Mogadishu, Somalia, he studied at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana and graduated in 1973 with a degree in the history of western civilization, he completed his master's degree in East African history and received a graduate certificate in African studies. He received a doctorate in African history at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in June 1979.

Samatar has published a number of books, including a series on Somalia; in addition, he has written a variety of articles, professional papers and book reviews, and has served as managing editor of "Horn of Africa" since 1988. A member of the executive committee of the Somali Studies International Association since 1979, Samatar was also a consultant to "The Somali Experience" project and is a member of the African Studies Association [http://www.africanstudies.org/] . He is currently working on a project titled, "The Somali Collapse: Its Causes, Consequences and Context."

Samatar has also participated in other professional activities. In 1992, he went to Somalia as a consultant and interpreter for the ABC news program "Nightline" with the American journalist Ted Koppel, as part of the Social Science Research Council team's reassessment of the "Teaching and Study of the Humanities in Africa." Since 1983, Samatar has appeared on BBC shows for interviews regarding Africa, and has discussed Somalia on NBC, ABC, CBS as well as PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television news programs and CNN International. Samatar has been cited in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Bibliography:

Books

* "Oral poetry and Somali nationalism: the case of Sayyid Mahammad 'Abdille Hasan". Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-521-23833-1
* "Somalia: nation in search of a State" (co-author: Laitin, David D.). Westview Press, 1987
* "Somalia: a nation in turmoil". Minority Rights Group, 1991
* (Ed.) "In the shadow of conquest: Islam in colonial Northeast Africa". Red Sea Press, 1992
* In Samatar '92: chapter 3: "Shaykh Uways Muhammad of Baraawe, 1847-1909: Mystic Reformer in East Africa"

Articles

*"Oral poetry and political dissent in Somali society : the Hurgumo series", "Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies", 1989
*"How to Run an SNM Gauntlet", "Horn of Africa", 13, Nos. 1-2, April-June 1990, 78-87.
*"The Search for Political Accountability in African Governance: The Somali Case"., "African Governance in the 1990s" (Atlanta: The Carter Center, 1990), pp. 165-168.
*"How to Save Somalia", "Washington Post", December 1, 1992, A19.
*"The Politics of Poetry", "Africa Report" (September/October 1993), pp. 16-17.
*"'Sarbeeb' : the art of oblique communication in Somali culture", "Language, rhythm, & sound : black popular cultures into the twenty-first century", 1997
*"Unhappy masses and the challenge of political Islam in the Horn of Africa", "Horn of Africa", 2002

External links

*Somalia Watch, Column: Somalia: Africa's problem child ? Posted on: Monday, Sept. 4, 2000 [http://www.somaliawatch.org/archivejuly/000904201.htm]
*Somalia Online, Sarbeeb : The Art of Oblique Communication in Somali Culture, June 9, 2005 [http://www.somaliaonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000092;p=]
*A Country Study: Somalia, Library of Congress Call Number DT401.5 .S68, 1993 [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sotoc.html]
*The Horn of Africa: An Independent Journal [http://hornofafrica.newark.rutgers.edu/]