| Listen to Barack Obama telling his own story. Before | | | | year old Barack was sent back to school in Hawaii. |
| Barack Obama became the 44th president of the | | | | Although Barack saw himself as a black person in |
| USA, and even before becoming a successful young | | | | essentially a white mans world, throughout his College |
| politician, he was a writer of some talent and this book | | | | days at Los Angeles he learnt to overcome his major |
| goes a long way to prove it. First published in 1995, | | | | confusion and anger, realising that he was pigeon holing |
| when Obama was 33 years old, "Dreams from My | | | | himself into creating a situation in his own mind that he |
| Father" is a complex and at times moving story of a | | | | did not really need to concern himself with. In 1983 he |
| young man's upbringing, family history and background. | | | | joined a community organisation in Chicago, a city then |
| Told with great skill and sensitivity, it is easy to | | | | proud of its newly elected Black Mayor, Harold |
| understand what lies behind the man and what | | | | Washington. A raft of ant-discrimination laws opened |
| motivated him to become the successful politician he | | | | up the city and offered greater opportunities to its |
| now is. | | | | black citizens. However, Obama, only 22 years of age, |
| The son of black African father and white American | | | | worked in many areas of the City where there was |
| mother, Obama tells a story that is all his own, but | | | | still great poverty and hopelessness and where a gun |
| perhaps not a completely untypical one set as it is | | | | culture existed amongst many of the young with |
| within a nation with such a multi cultural heritage as the | | | | whom he worked. The second part of this book |
| USA. But nonetheless, he tells it in a highly entertaining | | | | chronicles his time working with community leaders |
| and obviously a very personal manner. An account of | | | | and trying to affect the thinking of the city authorities. |
| a character forming journey through the early years of | | | | Believing that the best way to help the community |
| his life. | | | | was to train as a lawyer he entered Harvard law |
| Obama's paternal grandparents, of a white Texan | | | | school. But, before commencing his studies, he paid his |
| stock, moved to Hawaii, where, more so than in any | | | | first ever visit to Kenya to meet many members of his |
| other part of the Country, multi culturism has always | | | | extensive and complicated family (Barack senior had |
| been highly developed. His grandparents had always | | | | fathered some 8 children from four different women). |
| believed that racial equality was the norm, and they | | | | And it is here that he learned the whole story of his |
| could never understand why others did not see things | | | | Kenyan family, a personal history that he shares with |
| in the same way. When their daughter married Barack | | | | the reader. This book has received many positive |
| senior, a black Kenyan whom she met at University, | | | | reviews from leading journalists both in the USA and |
| there was no question of him not being accepted into | | | | Great Britain. There is absolutely no doubt whatever |
| the family. Unfortunately it was a short lived marriage, | | | | that the confident and assured personality the |
| Obama leaving the family nest when the young | | | | President now shows, is a great example of how |
| Barack was just 2 years old. His mother subsequently | | | | coming to terms and understanding ones roots can |
| remarried an Indonesian and the family moved to | | | | have such a defining impact on one's personal |
| Djakarta. However, this marriage also failed and the 10 | | | | development. |