Abdi Ismail Samatar (born 1950) is a Somali scholar, writer and professor of geography.

Personal life

Samatar was born in 1956 in Gabiley in Somaliland. He is the brother of scholar and politician Ahmed Ismail Samatar. For his tertiary education, Samatar earned an A.B. from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in 1979. He later obtained a MCRP in Urban/Regional Planning from the Iowa State University in 1981. In 1985, he completed a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Samatar is Muslim.

Career

Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, Samatar was a lecturer at the University of Iowa. He later joined the University of Minnesota's faculty, serving as a professor of geography and chair of the institution's geography department. He has authored several books centered on democracy and development in the Horn of Africa and the developing world. In 2000, his non-fiction work An African Miracle was a finalist for the year's Herskovits Prize. In Spring 2003, Samatar was the Chair of the Harmonization Committee of the Somali Charter: Somali Reconciliation – Independent Committee. In 2013–2014, he also served as the President of the African Studies Association. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest or contributor at various international media outlets, including Voice of America, PBS, Al Jazeera, the BBC, Radio France International, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, TV Channel 5 and Somali TV Minneapolis. On January 30 he was appointed to leader of the election commission to oversee the integrity of the Somalia presidential elections that were held 8 February 2017.

Awards

Samatar has received various awards for his work, including:

Professional memberships

Samatar's professional memberships include:

Selected works