Said Sheikh Samatar

Said Sheikh Samatar ( so, Siciid Sheekh Samatar, ar, سعيد الشيخ سمتر‎; 1943–24 February 2015) was a prominent Somali scholar and writer.

Biography

Early years

Said was born in 1943 in the Ogaden in Ethiopia to Faduma and Sheikh Samatar. He came from a large family consisting of fourteen people, including his father's second wife. He hailed from the Somali Leelkase/Fiqi Ismaciil subclan.

Samatar spent his early years in a nomadic environment, where he writes that "seasons of plenty" with "fragrant flowers blooming all over the fallowed fields, abundant milk and meat" alternated with the "perennial threat of starvation during droughts, marauding gangs of enemy clans bent on murder and mayhem, stripping you of your livestock, the ever-present danger of ravenous predators."

In 1958, Said's father, who had been working for the government as an Islamic magistrate since 1948, sent for him to begin schooling. Samatar subsequently moved to the town of Qalaafo, transitioning from nomadic life to urban life. A sixteen year old at the time, Samatar found himself surrounded by eight-year-old classmates. He says that while the experience in general was humiliating, he endured.

He completed his early education with a stint at a middle school in Nazareth, Ethiopia.

Adulthood

In 1970, Samatar began working at the National Teaching College in Somalia alongside several American librarians. There, an American friend suggested that he continue his education at a university in the United States.

Coming to the U.S. on a scholarship, Samatar commenced studies at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. He attended early morning and night classes, while working during the day as a welder to support his wife, who at the time was pregnant with their two children. Samatar graduated from Goshen College in 1973 with a degree in history and literature. He followed that with a Master's degree in Northeast African history, and received a graduate certificate in African studies. In 1979, he obtained a doctorate in African history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Soon after, a job offer arrived from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, where Samatar taught from 1979-1981. In July 1981, he accepted a post at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.Sofia Samatar: Stranger Scripts
Locus Magazine, June 3, 2013, accessed Oct. 18, 2014.

On 24 February 2015, Said Sheikh Samatar died while undergoing treatment for an unspecified illness in Newark. He is survived by his wife Lydia, son Delmar, daughter Sofia, and four grandchildren. Somali expatriates around the world sent their condolences to the late scholar's family.

Career

Samatar authored a number of books, including a series on Somalia. In addition, he wrote a variety of articles, scholarly papers and book reviews. Samatar was a member of the executive committee of the Somali Studies International Association since 1979, and served as a managing editor of the ''Horn of Africa'' journal. He was also a member of the International Advisory Board of ''Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies'', published by Macalester College. Additionally, Samatar was a consultant to ''The Somali Experience'' project and was a member of the African Studies Association. He oversaw Somali-related programming on Voice of America.

In 1995, along with Ismail Ali Ismail, Samatar took part in an international symposium in Asmara, Eritrea for the writing of the Constitution of Eritrea.

Samatar was a regular fixture in the popular media. In 1992, as part of the Social Science Research Council team's reassessment of the "Teaching and Study of the Humanities in Africa," he went to Somalia as a consultant and interpreter for the ABC news program ''Nightline'' with the American journalist Ted Koppel. Beginning in 1983, Samatar appeared on BBC
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