Dreams of My Father - Barack Obama

Dreams of My Father
Barack Obama
Text Publishing

Barack Obama’s lyrical memoir was written in 1991 after he had become the first African-American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. The election attracted some media attention and an invitation by a New York publisher to publish his memoir.The book opens with the young Barack receiving a call from a distant aunt in Kenya with the news of his father’s death. The son of a white shy mid-western girl and a black African father, his parents divorce when Barack was very young. His mother remarried an Indonesian man Lolo, and the family moved to Indonesia. Barack attends the local school and fondly recalls running barefoot with the local kids.Concerned about Barack’s education, his mother moved him back to Hawaii. He found himself in a unique situation of being a black child raised by white mother and grandparents. He did not have the usual hang-ups of other black kids who were descendents of African slaves. Yet in his teens, Barack became acutely aware of the ‘shackles of his skin colour’. Existing in the periphery of both black and white cultures and yet not belonging to either lead to anger and confusion in him. His father remained an enigma, existing only in the stories told to him ‘each one seamless, burnished smooth from repeated use’ by his mother, grandparents and later still by his half siblings.Before being accepted into Harvard, Barack worked as a community organiser in one of Chicago’s poorest black neighbourhoods. He writes eloquently and with refreshing honesty about the frustrations of trying to galvanize the community to bring better schooling, housing and health care to the neighbourhood.
The last part of the book describes his trip to Kenya where he meets his extended family and learns the bitter truths about his father and ultimately attains a sense of belonging.This is a candid, unflinching memoir. An honest portrayal of a man of mixed parentage who struggles to find his place in the world. Whether his message of hope and change comes to fruition is yet to be seen. As the US president, Obama may be able to lead the US towards a path that could bring about positive change, open dialogue, and hope to those whose dreams of a more equitable world had gone muted and unheard.