Abdi ismail samatar biography of alberta

Samatar, Abdi, Heinemann, Samatar, Abdi, Initiator, Samatar, Abdi, Author, Editorial of Somali Reconciliation. Samatar, Abdi, Ahmed Samatar, Somalis makeover Africa's First Democrats. Local Initiatives and Somali Reconstruction. Samatar, Abdi, Ethnicity and leadership in the making entity African state models: Botswana versus Somalia. Africa in the run-up to independence was difficult for one to surrender power.

This act on the part of Abdullahi Iise and Egaal was not a small accomplishment. Although Aden Adde scrupulously but not surprisingly relinquished power when he lost the presidency in JuneAbdirizak had never supported a government if that was not his or he was not part of. By contrast, Abdullahi Iise and Egaal duly surrendered their respective powers to the new nation-state leadership.

Democracy is not about electioneering; it is indeed more than that. Why did they give up their power positions to assuage the powerful grievances from not so easily ignorable Isaaq clan-group? Samatar confronts the perceived superiority of a rival clan-group, since he abdi ismail samatar biographies of alberta from a small clan felt marginalised by the Isaaq clan in Somaliland.

He seems to suggest that the Isaaq and their foremost post-colonial political leader Egaal were wrong to claim that they charitably sacrificed their sovereign Somaliland state on 26 June to the over-arching national cause of unifying the whole Somali territories in the Horn of Africa to form the Somali Republic. Samatar is oblivious to the fact that Ethiopia also opened the border, which was a livelihood matter for northern pastoralists who were reliant on the abundant pasture of the Hawd grasslands.

The author seems to be unaware that both Sheikh Ali Jimale and Egaal were ministers in the administration during this period until It seems that Samatar had never met Egaal who was a tall man and not so fat in his last years. A Gadabiirsi from Gebiley, Samatar seems to be struggling with the fact that the Isaaq are the predominant clan-group politically, economically and population-wise in the northern Somali territory, known as Somaliland.

Even when the Siad Barre regime inhumanely orchestrated genocide on the Isaaq civilian population, because they had provided moral and financial support for the armed resistance movement, the Somali National Movement SNMAbdi and his brother Ahmed sided with the Siad Barre regime, avoiding to mention what was happening in Hargeysa in their doctoral dissertations to this day, none of them has mentioned the Hargeysa Holocaust.

This hard-to-digest fact is a slap in the face of scholars, such as the erudite John Drysdale, who suggested about two decades ago, at the height of the clanised wars in Somalia, that inter-marriage arrangements among Somali clans would lessen clan animosities, clan rivalries and clan conflicts. This same dichotomous concept considers the Gadabiirsi a minority but not looma-ooyaan the severely marginalised communities for whom no one can cry if one got killed.

As usual, Samatar does not miss any opportunity to counter the Isaaq narrative, but not so without the cloak of nationalist rhetoric. This is despite the fact that no Somali clan can boast of so many notable nationalists as the Isaaq; this was the clan-group that contributed to Somali nationalism with such a considerable number of die-hard nationalists as Haji Farah Omaar, Ali Nuur, Michael Mariano, Clement Salool, to name but a few.

The Somalia that Samatar describes in his book is without faults, without wars, without disputes — one that he caricatures for his self-satisfaction. Indeed, even the small Somali children, born and bred in the Diaspora, can understand that post-colonial Somalia was more complicated than how Samatar seeks to simplify it. Samatar lives not in a Somali world but in an ideal world.

In his viewpoint, everything was bad in Somalia sinceexcept Aden Adde and Abdirizak. Samatar is not a political philosopher, much less well versed in the importance of political power positions in the African politics. Probably because of the mental confusion, it is not uncommon to see a Somali with physiotherapy background teaching photoecology.

For instance, Samatar is neither a historian nor an anthropologist. He is a geographer and therefore unqualified to write a biography. This does not imply that the book is a biography rather than a hagiography. Nor is it even a tribute or an extended obituary of Adden Adde and Abdirizak. Basically, it is a political book. Tellingly, Samatar is a former apologist for the Siad Barre regime.

After that regime was ignominiously overthrown, he began to romanticise the post-colonial period to counter the much appealing Somaliland narrative that Somalia had never become a unified state other than contesting clan fiefdoms. Sadly, the post-colonial Somalia did not produce a transformative leader at par with Nkrumah or Nyerere who would have come up with a new original political philosophy to transfigure the Somali clans into nationhood and statehood.

These mutual aspects of their formative lives influenced their outlook towards each other and toward Somalis, an important fact that Samatar evades highlighting as he attempts to universalise their political struggle. Aden Adde and Abdirizak were two men who obviously liked each other, defended each other vigorously, talked fondly about each other, spoke highly of each other, but were defeated together and buried next to each other.

Abdi ismail samatar biography of alberta

Aden Adde and Abdirizak were depicted as somewhat exceptional in a sea full of wolves, even remarkable exceptions to what was the rule in post-colonial Somali politics. Faced with clannism and corruption, Aden Adde and Abdirizak managed to control their interests to make a difference in the post-colonial state system. But they had their own share of the blame, a share that Samatar fails to notice, let alone note down.

The speaker, Ahmed Mohamed Absiiyeh, had an initial argument with Abdirizak over his suitability for prime minister. This is not a mindboggling question that legal historians would have difficulty to find an answer. Yet, again, Samatar fails to follow the action carried out by state actors. With the ouster of the speaker, Aden Adde and Abdirizak made Somalia a one-party state.

From there onwards, they managed to own the parliament. Even though Samatar argues Aden Adde and Abdirizak were puritanical political players with a high moral ground, considering them men bereft of corruption, his book contains evidence that contradicts his claims. Abdirizak also appointed other former ministers whom he had accused earlier of involvement in corruption into his cabinet.

Abdirizak freely admitted involvement in corruption in the presidential election. It is striking that Abdirizak blamed the Abdirashid-Egaal administration for corrupting the civil service, a slander he himself had committed earlier. Why had Aden Adde, more often than not, acted an admirer of the Italian colonial state system? Why had both men served colonial servants?

How could Abdirizak blame his opponents — like Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke — for state exploitation when he himself had exploited the banking loan system in Banca di Credito? How did Abdirizak obtain a seaside mansion overlooking the Liido beach p. Obviously, more questions arise than answers. Samatar twice repetitiously uses the same quotation from Africa Report in November to stress his point that Abdirizak was a tireless and hardworking man see p.

He reports that Abdirizak demanded right men for the right positions, but the question that begs an answer is: was Abdirizak himself the right man for the post of the PM? Samatar was born in in Gabiley in Somaliland. He is the brother of scholar and politician Ahmed Ismail Samatar. For his tertiary education, Samatar earned an A. Samatar is Muslim.

Between the late s and early s, Samatar was a lecturer at the University of Iowa. He has authored several books centered on democracy and development in the Horn of Africa and the developing world. In —, he also served as the President of the African Studies Association. 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 Samatar has received various awards for his work, including: [ 2 ].

Samatar's professional memberships include: [ 2 ]. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.