Longtime Rutgers professor and prominent Somali scholar Said Samatar died Tuesday at 71, according to the university.
Born in a remote section of Ethiopia inhabited by Somalis, Samatar spent his childhood as a member of a large, nomadic family that survived by herding camels.
He came to the U.S. to study at Goshen College in Indiana, and remained in academia, earning a doctorate from in African history from Northwestern University in 1979.
He joined the staff at Rutgers-Newark two years later, and quickly built a reputation as a leading authority on Somalian history. He wrote several books and took a post editing an academic journal “The Horn of Africa”, according to Rutgers.
As interest in Somalia grew after U.S. soldiers were deployed there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping effort in 1992, Samatar emerged as a prominent voice in the media.
He was tapped by ABC News as a consultant and interpreter in the country for anchor Ted Koppel, and made many appearances on CNN, BBC and other networks to discuss events in the war-torn country.
In a tribute posted on Rutgers-Newark’s College of Arts and Science’s webpage, colleagues recalled his ability to provide insight on often-tragic events without losing his trademark sense of humor.
“The issues were serious and treated so, but, as his colleagues and students well know, Dr. Samatar never failed to see the absurd in the human condition, however painful it may have been at the time,” it said.
“His is a voice that will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege to know him.”
Many former colleagues and fellow African scholars paid tribute to him after his death, and the republic of Somalia itself even took to Twitter to offer their well wishes to his loved ones.
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