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Lecture addresses nation-building in Africa
RELEASED: Oct. 20, 2005
DANVILLE, KY—Centre College will present a lecture by Abdi Samatar titled "Culture, Ethnicity, Democracy and the State in Africa" on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in Young Hall, room 101. Samatar will discuss the political and social histories of Botswana, South Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia to illustrate the roles that culture and ethnicity play in the process of nation-building in Africa.
Abdi Samatar, professor of geography and global studies at the University of Minnesota, is Somali by birth. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Ethiopia and has conducted extensive fieldwork in Botswana. He spent two years in South Africa in the immediate aftermath of apartheid.
Samatar's interests are development and nation-building in Africa, and he approaches these complex topics from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
Lori Hartmann-Mahmud, assistant professor of international studies at Centre, says, "Abdi Samatar is one of the most creative thinkers on the topics of development and African nation building. I believe that he provides practical and visionary ideas for addressing some of the seemingly intractable problems on the continent."Samatar is the author of several books. His book An African Miracle: State and Class Leadership and Colonial Legacy in Botswana Development was a 2000 finalist for the Herskovits Award, awarded yearly to the most important book on Africa.
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