Rating-
5/5
It was
obvious for me to read this memoir. I saw the book in the local library almost
three years ago and right then I had decided that I will read it, but being
busy in other works, couldn’t get the time. This year was also slipping, so at
last I borrowed and knowing not much about it I posted a picture in the group
and just asked , “How’s it?”. And this, “How’s it” stirred a heated political
argument. Oh My God! It was so much that the admin had to turn the comments
off. In fact, the book is apolitical to some extents. Apolitical in the sense
that Obama hasn’t expressed any political desire of himself, but he talked much
about the then ongoing situation of Racism in USA, its history, significance
and impact. It was published in 1995. It explores vividly the times between his
earlier years and his entry in the Law school in 1988.
The book is
divided in three parts- Origin, Chicago and Kenya.
In 1959,
Obama’s father (Obama Sr.) arrived at the University of Hawaii as the
institution’s first African student from Kenya. He studied Econometrics there
and in a Russian language course, he met a shy American girl Ann Dunham. They
fell in love, happily married. Obama was born in 1961. His father won another
scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. in Harvard- but not the money to take his
family there. A separation thus occurred. Obama Sr. returned to Africa to
fulfill his promise to the continent and the new born country.
Ann Dunham
met another man in the same University. His name was Lolo Soetoro, an
Indonesian. He was a short handsome gentleman. When Obama was six, Lolo
returned to Indonesia and started working as a Geologist. Obama also moved to
Indonesia with his mother and learned a great deal about its history and
behavior. With Lolo he learned to eat plenty of rice in dinner, dog meat, snake
meat, roasted grasshopper etc. Besides eating habits, he learnt a bit of boxing
and some pragmatism from his stepfather like, “One must be strong. If you can’t
be strong, be clever and make peace with someone who is strong. But always
better to be strong yourself.” It shows Obama loved his company, but things got
changed as his mother smelt something fishy. Ann was working in American
embassy. She was somewhat idealistic in her motherhood and had great impact on
Barack’s conscience in his childhood. Lolo got highly involved with Indonesian
elite and multinational corporations. It made Ann very upset. She was
particularly upset for Barack’s studies. That’s why she sent Barack Hawaii back
to his grandparents and later herself joined him with his half-sister Maya.
Barack was enrolled here in the elite Punahou school that he didn’t like
seldom. Lolo was left in Indonesia.
Obama Sr.
paid a visit to Hawaii when Barack was ten years old. Though Barack was
acquainted with him through his mother and grandparents’ stories, but it was
the first time he was consciously watching and interacting. Even Barack got the
chance to dance with him but whenever Obama Sr. tried to exercise his authority
as his father, the situation became tense. It was logical, I think. Obama Sr.
returned to Kenya. It was the last time when Barack saw his father alive. Later
he came to know from his step-sister Auma that this was his father’s last
attempt to reconcile with his mother Ann, that wasn’t successful.
Afterwards Ann
joined college to study Anthropology and when she went to Indonesia for her
fieldwork, Obama stayed with his grandparents. It was the time when Obama got a
loose from her mother’s influence and tries to find his own racial identity in
the outer world. As the case was, Obama himself was of a mixed breed, and the
skin he had resembled his father more than his mother. He couldn’t escape from
his African lineage. He becomes aware of the fact how much important role Race
and Racism play in the lives of African Americans. He tried drugs, made friends
in his community and played basketball also in his high-school team.
When Obama
attended the Occidental College outside of Los Angles, he got the chance to
live with enlightened African American friends of his own age. In this period,
he read a lot of literature about American History and Polity. Still, he wasn’t
satisfied or sure about his racial identity. The breakthrough in his life came
when he was transferred to Columbia University during his sophomore year and
there he decided that he will dedicate his life in the service of African
American people. Though this was his resolution but he took a job in corporate sector
and enjoyed it for a year approx. It was when he turned 21 and got the news
from his step sister Auma that his father had died in a car accident in Kenya,
he realized that it was the appropriate time to activate his resolution.
Erstwhile, in his boyhood, his father’s absence affected him negatively as he
was like a myth for him, but at this mature age, he felt somewhat of loss and
his father became for him a source of motivation.
Obama
thought what it was like to bear his father’s surname while not having
connection with the side of his family. This pushed him hard to get close to
his African roots. That’s why he chucked up his corporate job and went to
Chicago to work as a community organizer. His desire to become an organizer was
also rooted in idealized notion of American Civil Rights Movement, and the
possibility that the work and sacrifice will bring him closer to the Black
community and create a place among them.
Chicago
proves to be pivotal in his life. He worked under Marty Kaufman and learned to
operate in a city which had elected its first African-American mayor. There, he
also committed to Christianity when he visited Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s
Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. In Chicago, he got the chance to
look closely at the problems of black community and it convinced him that he
can bring the lasting changes only if he learns about Law. So, he applied for,
and was accepted to Law School at Harvard
In the last
part of the book, before attending the Law School, Obama took a trip to visit
Kenya with his step sister Auma just to strengthen his acknowledgement about his
African roots. He came to know a great deal about the rise and fall of his
father, his last painful days, his disagreement from the Kenyan government, his
eccentricity, alcoholism and his other wives. He came to know how flawed and
complicated his father was. He contemplated there on the point whether
everything his father did was bad in the broad scenario of Kenyan colonization
and the utter poverty he had to live in. Still, his father had exhibited the
endurance and hope. He found that he was ineluctably bound to relatives living
an ocean away- and that by embracing their common struggles he could reconcile
his divided inheritance. However, he made peace with his father’s memories. The
book is closed with the scenes of his multicultural wedding to Michelle
Robinson.
Obama’s
style is lucid and descriptive. I just wonder on his capability of asking
questions and making suggestions by his own. By the way, it took me almost more
than 20 days to finish when I started to read in September, but I was so
overwhelmed by his personality after finishing that I thought I won’t justify
an impartial review if I have to write it right now. I gave it a space and
postponed the idea.
This book
tells the story about the forces and causes that shaped Obama’s personality. The
timing of publication, July 1995, when he was starting his political campaign
for Illinois Senate may infer the he tried to gain sympathy from the masses-
but this is to discuss. He seems Left in his political views and often talks
about the unity of races and cultures in USA.
Well, I
liked the book. I am an Indian and I like Obama, his personality, his oratory
skills etc. Even I bought his second book that is to be read yet. As far as his
politics in recent times, I don’t have much to say.
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