Nine years before the Senate campaign that made him one of the most influential and compelling voices in American politics, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsentimental, and powerfully affecting memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004.
Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother—a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego.
Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has died in a car accident.
The news triggers a chain of memories as Barack retraces his family’s unusual history: the migration of his mother’s family from small-town Kansas to the Hawaiian islands; the love that develops between his mother and a promising young Kenyan student, a love nurtured by youthful innocence and the integrationist spirit of the early sixties; his father’s departure from Hawaii when Barack was two, as the realities of race and power reassert themselves; and Barack’s own awakening to the fears and doubts that exist not just between the larger black and white worlds but within himself.
Propelled by a desire to understand both the forces that shaped him and his father’s legacy, Barack moves to Chicago to work as a community organizer.
There, against the backdrop of tumultuous political and racial conflict, he works to turn back the mounting despair of the inner city. His story becomes one with those of the people he works with as he learns about the value of community, the necessity of healing old wounds, and the possibility of faith in the midst of adversity.
Barack’s journey comes full circle in Kenya, where he finally meets the African side of his family and confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life. Traveling through a country racked by brutal poverty and tribal conflict, but whose people are sustained by a spirit of endurance and hope, Barack discovers that he is inescapably bound to brothers and sisters living an ocean away—and that by embracing their common struggles he can finally reconcile his divided inheritance. A searching meditation on the meaning of identity in America, Dreams from My Father might be the most revealing portrait we have of a major American leader—a man who is playing, and will play, an increasingly prominent role in healing a fractious and fragmented nation."
Engineer Faraday –
“Deforestation anywhere is Deforestation everywhere” Very powerful words coming from a Legend WANGARI MATHAI … i will just say like (MPENDA MITI ) the world i inherited from parents is not the one my children will inherit ” that is true People are practicing Deforestation in a high rate leading to Global warming…. Page 55 … (TALKING OF TREES)
Enginéer Faraday –
The writer ALEXANDER NDÉRITU is seen appreciateing WANGARI MATHAIS work by writing her HISTORICAL TIMELINE found at the back of the book i myself i had not known WANGARI MATHAIS that much but by reading through the HISTORICAL TIMELINE i have now known her well thanks to ALEXANDER …… WANGARI DIED IN 2011 guessing i was in class 2.
Engineer Faraday –
(THE TALKING OF TREES) the writer (ALEXANDER NDÉRITU) has innerlly dwelt on life , job and all HISTORICAL TIMELINE of our fallen hero WANGARI MATHAI .. by doing that the writer is seen to have appreciated WANGARI MATHAIS WORK OF BEAUTIFYING NATURE …….
Engineer Faraday –
STACY WALKER INTERVIEW (description)
Engineer Faraday –
KISS COMMANDER PROMISE…. all round politics that that are affecting the world (ISRAEL IS MENTIONED HERE … soo sad that israel is demolishing Gaza community out of faded politics
Engineer Faraday –
AFRICA ON MY MIND… tender story of love brewed in African pot …. AFRICA ITSELF STRUGLES AGAINST FREAK WEATHER AND AN OUTBREAK OF DISEASES which is also a reality today…. soo sad
Enginéer Faraday –
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE PICTURE 😊😊😊by Alexander Ndéritu
Enginéer Faraday –
AFRICA ON MY MIND … just read a simple description …. “LIZZIE”
Enginéer Faraday –
THE TALKING OF TREES … its a written play that deliver a huge message to a fast moving world ….. Each character with a different perspective about nature
Enginéer Faraday –
Mzee mapesa on it again 😂😂😂 .. The talking of trees
Engineeer Faraday –
The talking of trees is a well gramatically set stage book that has gone deep to what Professor Wangari Mathai had to go through just for the love of trees .,.,. if truly trees could talk they could thank Wangari for truly giving herself to make sure trees are well taken care of .
Engineeer Faraday –
DISCO MATANGA ::: The book that i have currently read two times is ” By the river Gura …” quiet interesting book i keep repeating it and i don’t why ….
Engineeer Faraday –
Talking of trees by Alexander Ndéritu .,…:::: currently reading it is very interesting….
Lippy –
For the love of trees like my mentor wangari mathari I had to read the book (the talking of trees)it’s very awesome and interesting ,,i learnt alot about my mentor wangari mathari….good job Alexander
Griet –
I saw Alexander talking about his book in the Alliance Francaise and was intrigued because I had ‘the hidden life of trees’ next to my bed and thought they might be both talking about the same subject, i.e. how trees communicate with each other.
While I do recommend the latter book by Peter Wohlleben, I also really recommend Alexander’s book for all those who want to know more about Wangari Maathai, the first African female to win a Nobel Peace Prize! (The first female to win that prize was Marie Curie and the first African was Albert Luthuli). Anyway, Wangari was also the first woman in East Africa to obtain a PhD. A very remarkable woman who led a very important struggle: the one to keep Kenya green. Thanks to her Karura Forest is still a forest to go and enjoy a green space, breath clean air, relax, play with your dog etc.
Alexander is a great story teller with a good sense humor. I look forward to seeing the play staged in a theatre. In the meantime just read the book and lean about some important history while having a good time!
Griet Dierckxsens