[{"alt":"A man wearing a red-and-white-striped tie, a blue suit jacket, and a white dress shirt stands in front of a microphone with his hands lifted. An American flag is behind him.","author":[{"name":"Ibrahim Hirsi","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/author/ibrahim-hirsi"}],"categoryTag":[{"id":186625246088,"name":"Person","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"date":"September 25, 2026","eraTag":[{"id":186625246056,"name":"1980–Present (US in a New Global Age)","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"keydate":"","name":"Samatar, Hussein (1964–2013)","postbody":"Hussein Samatar was an entrepreneur, banker, and public servant who advocated for greater access to education for immigrant families. He founded and led the African Development Center, a ...","searchtext":"Hussein Samatar was an entrepreneur, banker, and public servant who advocated for greater access to education for immigrant families. He founded and led the African Development Center, a nonprofit that provides financial education and loans to prospective immigrant entrepreneurs and homeowners. He was the first American of Somali descent elected to a public office in Minnesota (and possibly the US), inspiring a generation of young Somali Minnesotans to pursue civic engagement and public service. Samatar was born in 1968 into a prominent family in Kismayo, Somalia, just a few years after the country gained independence from Italian and British colonial rule in the southern and northern territories, respectively. His father served as a high-ranking official under post-colonial Somali administrations, holding positions that included police commissioner and head of the country’s criminal investigation department. Samatar, the youngest of five, spent his early childhood in Kismayo, where he completed primary school, before moving with his family to the capital, Mogadishu. There, he attended high school and later earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Somali National University (SNU). Meanwhile, Somalia’s political and economic conditions had gradually deteriorated. By 1969, the post-independence honeymoon had waned, and a military regime under Mohamed Siad Barre replaced the civilian government. Although Barre established efficient bureaucratic institutions, adopted a Latin-based writing system for Somali, and launched a national literacy campaign, his administration cracked down on those deemed a threat to his power. By the late 1970s and 1980s, armed opposition groups emerged to oust Barre. In January 1991, just four days after Samatar graduated from SNU, the rebels overthrew the government. What began as anger and frustration toward the Barre regime escalated into a protracted civil war, with neighbors turning against one another. Soon, hundreds of thousands of people fled to neighboring countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Yemen. Samatar was among those who fled to a Kenyan refugee camp. By 1992, the United States began admitting Somali refugees. Two years later, Samatar became part of a growing Somali population that put down roots in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside, East Phillips, Seward, and Whittier neighborhoods. In the 1990s and early 2000s, when internet access was rare among newcomers, Somalis used computers in public libraries to find employment, educational resources, and ways to connect with loved ones abroad. Samatar’s regular spot was Franklin Library, a 1914 one-story, light-brown brick building in the East Phillips neighborhood. In its early years, the library served a community largely made up of Scandinavian and Jewish immigrants. By 1995, however, it mostly served the area’s growing Somali community, including Samatar, who used the library and its resources to teach himself English. Samatar went on to secure employment as a business banker at Wells Fargo and earn an MBA in financial management from the University of St. Thomas. A few years later, as more immigrant entrepreneurs started small businesses, Samatar left corporate America for the nonprofit world. In 2002, he established and became the CEO of the African Development Center, a nonprofit that offers immigrants and refugees financial education and loans, as well as training in business development and homeownership. In November 2005, Samatar entered the public eye when then-Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak appointed him to serve on the Minneapolis Library Board. The board was tasked, in part, with authorizing a tax levy to support the library and overseeing library operations. Samatar believed, according to the Star Tribune, that libraries were an “equalizer of opportunity for immigrant communities.” In 2010, Samatar became the first American of Somali descent to hold an elected office in Minnesota, and most likely the US, when he won a seat on the Minneapolis Board of Education. He advocated for reforms to improve learning outcomes for students of color, who had lagged behind their white peers. Samatar was a trusted voice in the Somali community. He represented the community’s interests in the Minnesota media landscape and organized events to address pressing community issues. His leadership inspired a generation of young Somali Americans who have won high-profile political offices in federal, state, and local governments in Minnesota and beyond. On August 25, 2013, Samatar died in Minneapolis of complications from leukemia. He was forty-five. In 2018, the city of Minneapolis opened Samatar Crossing, a bike and pedestrian path connecting the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood to downtown Minneapolis. The city named the path after Samatar in honor of his commitment to public service and bridge building. Editor’s note: Samatar preferred to be described as an American of Somali descent rather than a Somali American. As he told a reporter in 2010, although he remained a part of the Somali diaspora, he had made Minnesota his home. This article refers to him as an American of Somali descent out of respect for this preference. At the same time, it uses the more common term “Somali Americans” to refer to the Somali community in Minnesota and the United States in general.","src":"https://21588026.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21588026/MNopedia/MNopedia%202026/Hussein%20Samatar/Samatar_Photo_cropped.jpg","topicsTag":[{"id":186622056200,"name":"Business and Industry","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"},{"id":186622056211,"name":"Immigration","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"url":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/samatar-hussein-1964-2013"},{"alt":"Photograph of the interior of a traditional Somali home, recreated for the Somali Museum of Minnesota","author":[{"name":"Ibrahim Hirsi","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/author/ibrahim-hirsi"}],"categoryTag":[{"id":186625246074,"name":"Place","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"date":"March 08, 2018","eraTag":[{"id":186625246056,"name":"1980–Present (US in a New Global Age)","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"keydate":"","name":"Somali Museum of Minnesota","postbody":"The Somali Museum of Minnesota was founded in 2013 to preserve Somali culture and tradition through art exhibits, educational programs, and dance. Since then, the Minneapolis-based ...","searchtext":"The Somali Museum of Minnesota was founded in 2013 to preserve Somali culture and tradition through art exhibits, educational programs, and dance. Since then, the Minneapolis-based nonprofit has become more visible to Somali Americans across the United States as it expands efforts to showcase its growing artifact collections and traditional Somali dance across North America. In 2009, Osman Ali began collecting traditional Somali artifacts and displaying them in the basement of his Minneapolis café, Sanaag Coffee and Restaurant. His goal was to give customers glimpses of the history, culture, and tradition of Somali Americans. The museum’s collections grew over the years. The café||s basement, where they were stored, became a popular destination for those who wanted to experience both Somali cuisine and Somali cultural artifacts in a single place. Then, one day in 2012, Ali learned that someone more prominent was coming to the restaurant: US Senator Al Franken, who wanted to try Somali food and see the collections. But Ali felt that taking the senator to the basement to see the artifacts wasn’t “a good thing.” To solve this problem, Ali transferred the items to a building next door, where he created a makeshift mini-museum. Before long, it displayed more than 150 artifacts, including traditional milk jars and containers, wooden bowls, and spoons, as well as woven prayer mats and wall rugs. That temporary shift inspired Ali to do something no other Somali had—or has, to date— done in the United States: he created a museum that houses the culture and tradition of the East African community. That meant moving his collections to a permanent space at 1516 East Lake Street, where a larger number of visitors could access them to learn about the nomadic Somali lifestyle. From that process was born the Somali Museum of Minnesota in 2013. It aimed to preserve Somali culture and traditions and to share them with Minnesota residents interested in learning about the community. In 2018, the nonprofit organization boasts more than 700 artifacts. It also displays traveling exhibitions at major events across the country and provides educational programs in Somali history, culture, art, and dance. In addition to its general hours (3:00–7:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays; 1:00–5:00 p.m. on weekends), the museum offers personalized visits for individuals interested in learning more about the culture. Over the years, the museum has received invitations from communities and schools in Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, California, Canada, and Mogadishu, where Ali and his team have either presented on Somali history or displayed cultural artifacts. Each year, since 2014, the museum hosts more than 1,000 people to commemorate its founding anniversary, bringing together world-renowned Somali artists, educators, and historians from across the United States, Canada, and Europe. In 2017, the museum received the Innovation Award—which recognizes the achievements of Somali organizations and professionals worldwide—at the International Somali Awards in London.","src":"https://21588026.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21588026/Mnopedia%20Blogs/somali_museum152.jpg","topicsTag":[{"id":186622056208,"name":"Arts","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"},{"id":186622056211,"name":"Immigration","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"url":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/somali-museum-minnesota"},{"alt":"Color image of the interior of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota (CSCM), 2017. Photograph by Ibrahim Hirsi.","author":[{"name":"Ibrahim Hirsi","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/author/ibrahim-hirsi"}],"categoryTag":[{"id":186625246074,"name":"Place","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"date":"October 17, 2017","eraTag":[{"id":186625246056,"name":"1980–Present (US in a New Global Age)","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"keydate":"1994","name":"Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota","postbody":"Founded in 1994, the Minneapolis-based Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota (CSCM) is one of the oldest Somali-operated nonprofit organizations in the state. For more than two ...","searchtext":"Founded in 1994, the Minneapolis-based Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota (CSCM) is one of the oldest Somali-operated nonprofit organizations in the state. For more than two decades, it has provided job and education services as well as health care and legal assistance to members of the community who face language and cultural barriers. At the end of 1991, the first wave of Somali refugees escaping the bloody civil war in their East African country began to start a new life in Minnesota. Back then, many newcomers spoke little or no English. Because of the language barrier, most of them struggled to find jobs and access social services. Around the same time, other Somalis who had immigrated to other parts of the United States before the civil war began moving to the state to join the new refugees. They came from as far away as California, Texas, and New York. By 1993, the number of Somali residents in Minnesota reached into the hundreds. Many of them were in dire need of basic social services. They needed assistance filling out housing and job applications, making doctors’ appointments, enrolling children in schools, and using public transportation. In 1994, a group of Somali refugees banded together to respond to the growing needs of community members. Many of them had worked as educators and public servants before the civil war in Somalia. The result was the CSCM, a nonprofit organization that provides Somali residents with job training and then connects them to job prospects. The group also offers members of the community housing and education services. CSCM has served as a cultural and language bridge that connects Somali refugees and immigrants to employers, school officials, and housing authorities throughout the state. These services have made CSCM a one-stop social service hub that draws between 200 and 250 clients each month. A majority are new Somali residents of the Twin Cities metro area with limited education or English skills. CSCM provides diverse services. Two of its signature programs are the Newcomer Academy and Shaqodoon Employment Solutions (introduced in 2016). Through the Newcomer Academy program, the organization works with Somali students entering local public schools to offer after-school support services to help them graduate on time. Through its Shaqodoon Employment Solutions, CSCM assists Somali youth and unskilled immigrant job-seekers in the Twin Cities metro area. CSCM staff teach them how to write resumes, apply for jobs, and prepare for job interviews. The program also connects residents to employers with low-skill job vacancies. Aside from its education and employment programs, CSCM, which is led by executive director Mohamud Noor, helps people with housing needs and language barriers as well as those facing immigration issues and deportation. Its mission is “[t]o strengthen the capacity of Somalis in Minnesota to become contributing members of society, while keeping their culture.” Since it was founded, CSCM has been based in Minneapolis’ Cedar Riverside neighborhood. The area has special significance in the community as the home of the largest concentration of Somali people in the US. It has produced both the nation’s first Somali American legislator, Ilhan Omar, and its first Somali American city council member, Abdi Warsame.","src":"https://21588026.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21588026/Mnopedia%20Blogs/InsideCSCM_straightened.jpg","topicsTag":[{"id":186622056211,"name":"Immigration","slug":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index"}],"url":"https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/confederation-somali-community-minnesota"}]

Ibrahim Hirsi

Biography:

Ibrahim Hirsi, PhD, is a Minnesota-based journalist and historian who has written for MinnPost, Sahan Journal, MPR News, and other outlets. He has also taught at Augsburg University and the University of Minnesota.

Ibrahim Hirsi

Biography:

Articles