| Author | Message | ||
     Tonya "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Tonya Post Number: 373 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
Obama’s real feelings when he last visited Kenya Last Updated on August 19, 2006, 12:00 am By Nicholas Asego Barrack obama: The pain I felt was my father’s pain. My questions were my brothers’ questions. Their struggle, my birthright. A copy of Obama’s book United States of America senator will be coming to Kenya next week in his five-nation tour to Africa. He carries with him a credential no other US Senator can claim: He is the son of an African. Twice before, this African connection led him to visit Africa and learn more about his late father, a Kenyan educated at Harvard. Obama’s roots can be traced to K’Ogello clan in South East Alego Location, Karemo division, Siaya in Nyanza Province. His quest for identity, which on many fronts stemmed from an incomplete understanding of his father’s life, is captured in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. It captures the author’s fleeting relationship with Barack Obama snr, a Kenyan economist who left his family when his son was two years old. The book opens with the author receiving a phone call from an unknown aunt Jane, in Nairobi. At the time (1982) Obama was a 21-year-old university student living in New York City. "At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me, both more or less than a man," he says. Yet this jolting death announcement led Obama to search for knowledge about his Kenyan legacy. Obama enjoyed a comfortable childhood except the nagging absence of his father. "There was only one problem: my father was missing," he says. As a young boy he is shocked and confused with the race related issues and ends up crafting clever stories to explain his African heritage to his peers. Not only does he convince them that his father is a prince in a tribe full of warriors but that he is the next prince. In all this his heart was pricked with guilt. "… A part of me knew that I was telling them a lie, something I had constructed from the scraps of information I had picked up from my mother." As he enters adulthood, Obama learns much about his father from a woman named Auma, one of Dr Obama’s children from another marriage in Kenya. Auma’s visit to Obama in the United States results in the development of a close sibling relationship. Yet not until he visits Kenya does he encounter the truth about his father. The old man, as Auma and his other children know him, had managed to repair his life before it ended abruptly. Right at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Obama felt different especially after Miss Omoro, a British Airways official recognised his surname. "For the first time in my life, I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide, how it could carry an entire history in other people’s memory… No one in Kenya would ask me how to spell my name, or mangle it with unfamiliar tongue." In Kenya the young Obama gains insights and affinities not only of the Luos but also of the Kenyan community at large. He becomes aware of many problems plaguing the country and it’s contemporary culture-poverty, corruption and wife beating. As he walks the streets of Nairobi Obama cannot help but feel different, nothing like his American experience. "Here the world was black, and so you were just you; you could discover all those things that were unique to your life without living a lie or committing a betrayal." On his way to ‘Home Square’ in Alego he gets a chance to travel in a matatu another main feature in our Kenyan road culture. To Obama it was "a sad-looking vehicle with balding, cracked tires." Due to scarcity of seats he ended carrying Auma on his lap together with a basket of yams and somebody else’s baby girl, it was travelling — Kenyan style. As he meets his granny and other relatives Obama could not find words to describe what he felt. "It wasn’t simply joy that I felt in each of these moments. Rather, it was a sense that everything I was doing, every touch and breadth and word carried the full weight of my life." Towards the end of Dreams from My Father, it is obvious that Obama attains a measure of peace and a degree of self-awareness. As he weeps between the graves of his father and grandfather, he experiences what he had all along been searching for. "When my tears were finally spent, I felt a calmness wash over me. I felt the circle finally close. I realised that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words… The pain I felt was my father’s pain. My questions were my brothers’ questions. Their struggle, my birthright." Copyright © MMVI . The Standard Group http://www.eastandard.net/mag/mag.php?id=1143957004 | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1384 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: N/A |
Barack had a good mother! | ||
| Kola_boof "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Kola_boof Post Number: 3063 Registered: 02-2005 Rating: N/A |
His sister Auma had a better one. | ||
| Kola_boof "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Kola_boof Post Number: 3064 Registered: 02-2005 Rating: N/A |
At least...that's what his book suggests quite strongly. In the book--he never did indicate what the "friction" was with his white mother or her family (he barely mentions any of them in detail), but you can tell there was another MOTIVATOR for his obsession with his father's land, and because he loves his mother, he doesn't want to say anything bad. I'm glad he found his grandmother, his Aunt Jane and Auma's mother in Kenya. As he wrote---they made him feel complete, at last. | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1386 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: N/A |
I don't know a thing about "Auma", so I can't comment on the quality of how she was mothered. But, if she's anything like her brother, I'm sure she had a good mother, too. | ||
| Kola_boof "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Kola_boof Post Number: 3065 Registered: 02-2005 Rating: N/A |
You need to read the book then. | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1387 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: |
Kola, I heard him speak on Oprah about his mother. I never sensed one ounce of friction. It was heartfelt, sweet, sincere and moving. And I don't need to read his book to understand why he "felt complete" when he met his father's family --his father left him when he was a boy and only visited him one time while growing up. That's devastating to a young boy! He needed closure and to connect with that side of his family, especially because his father had died. It's only natural for any human being to want that. And, for a son, the desire and confirmation to know your father loved you --especially after he abadoned you, is a great motivator to seek 'his land' and 'his people' for answers. And just as that motivation to be affirmed is natural, so is the kindredness he feels for them--it's his family (for Goodness sake). And when anybody has a "good mother", no one--NO ONE--can compare. Again, only natural. | ||
| Kola_boof "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Kola_boof Post Number: 3069 Registered: 02-2005 Rating: |
Moon, you're the one on the defense. Not me. And you're the one who hasn't read the book. Not me. And I never once said his mother wasn't a "good" mother. What I inferred is that RACE mitigated their ability to be totally one in the same world. Which it did. As usual---we blame the "mothers" of the world for everything that goes wrong. My personal feeling, reading the book, is that Obama deeply loves his mother--but he also unfairly punishes her for not being "black". It's very suttle, mostly carried out by NOT BEING THERE--being estranged from his mother's "wonderful" family that provided him with privileage. But it's there. His father left his mother for a Kenyan woman and left in his wake the message that Obama's mother was a "mistake" he made, and additionally, I'm sure it must have hurt that Obama grew up and seemingly gravitated to that same woman. Of course, the history of Black Women vs. White Women is so grossly unjust and polarized (and universally denied by White women)----that it's only natural you would rush in here to proclaim his "good mother!" after an article focused on him finding his African identity---and of course, it's only natural that I would resent you (and most white women's) selfish lack of caring for black women's feelings when the tables are turned the other way. In other words, you have no problem with a black woman being INVISIBLE, but you can't take the same treatment. You white bitches are really and truly---the WORST in womenkind---no matter what nice people you are. You benefit more from White Supremacy than any White Man does. | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1388 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: N/A |
It's not being defensive at all, Kola. Remember, you're the one who feels "white bitches are really and truly---the WORST in womenkind." I have never felt that way about Black women nor would I ever make such an unfair, ignorant and inaccurate generalization about any group of women. You stuck your foot in your mouth and made this a racial issue, when that was never in my heart to begin with. But, considering you "resent" us, it's only natural you'd do such --and try to flip the situation in attempt to make it appear that I'm the intolerant one.....because it would support your gross stereotypes about white women. It doesn't work with me, though --because I think it's healthy and natural for him to identify with all the people in this family (and embrace both cultures) --and I think it's incredible that his mother didn't allow her abandonment by her husband to influence how her son felt about his father. That's why I think she is a "good mother". Read this: "I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book -- less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life. In my daughters, I see her every day, her joy, her capacity for wonder. I won't try to describe how deeply I mourn her passing still. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her." -Barack Obama writing about his mother Though I'm sure you skipped over that part, when you read the book. *wink* | ||
| Kola_boof "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Kola_boof Post Number: 3073 Registered: 02-2005 Rating: |
Moonsigns: Remember, you're the one who feels "white bitches are really and truly---the WORST in womenkind." I have never felt that way about Black women nor would I ever make such an unfair, ignorant and inaccurate generalization about any group of women. KOLA: No, it IS accurate and is not a generalization. You bitches ARE the worst in womankind. Institutional racism makes it a FACT of life for all of us. And, of course, your smarmy two-faced ass would never make such a statement---because as a WHITE WOMAN---you don't have to! The society and the power structure does it for you. You get to just sit back and pretend to be some paragon of virtue that all other women are just "jealous" of---when the TRUTH IS---you white bitches ain't shit and never were. Everything you have, including what you think of yourself----is at the expense of someone else. Because WHITE SUPREMACY gives you that privileage. As for "skipping" over shit--you must have missed this BECKY FAT-FOOT: My personal feeling, reading the book, is that Obama deeply loves his mother-- And obviously, you haven't READ the book, as I still stand by everything I said. | ||
| Renata "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Renata Post Number: 1206 Registered: 08-2005 Rating: N/A |
I can't say too much of him or the book.....but I do remember a Jewish guy I dated when I was 17. His mother was white and loved her children dearly, but her family didn't acknowledge him or his brother and sister and had no problem in completely ignoring them due to their racism against Jews. He looked like his mother's family and not his father's family. Anyways, because of his Jewish blood, he didn't feel like he "belonged" to his mother's family...even though he looked like them. To this day, (he's 34)he won't date white women because he doesn't want his children to be rejected by their family when it's found that they have jewish blood. (He'll date everyone else). I said that to point out that I can only imagine how Barack may have felt out of place being the only black person in his family. To not just know that you aren't like the other people in your family, but to be able to just LOOK and SEE that you don't fit in has to have some kind of effect on a young child. It would make sense that he felt complete when he found his father's family and found people that he actually LOOKS like he belongs to. | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1389 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: N/A |
Kola: "No it IS accurate and is NOT a generalization. You bitches are the WORST in womankind. Institutional racism makes it a FACT of life for all of us." Moonsigns: Considering men wield most of the power and influence in the world, it's more than obvious that women aren't to blame for many of our social ills. Anyone with common sense can look at any nation/country in the world, "developed" or not, and take note of the social infrastructure and comprehend that women, even white women, aren't running shyt --however, you expect white women to be accountable to change the social ills that even non-white women who live in predominately non-white regions/countries/nations/islands/ are powerless to change themselves. It's not just, and it's not logical. Therefore, your gross generalization IS INaccurate --and just an excuse for your disdain for white women --and anything that isn't "authentic" enough for you. And once African women can "fix" the infrastructure in (predominately black) Africa, then you can hold white women (and "light skin" women) to the same standard in the "melting pot" of America. You can't throw stones when you live in a glass house. | ||
| Abm "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Abm Post Number: 6182 Registered: 04-2004 Rating: N/A |
Kola & Moonsigns, I'm amazed how women can conveniently excuse themselves of the myriad evils and calamaties of the world. It's the White MAN'S fault for THIS... It's the Black MAN'S fault for THAT... It must be very comforting to be a woman. Because you don't have to be responsible or accountable for shyt that goes wrong. I mean, hell. It's not like women birth, nurse, raise, mate and marry all of us evil men. Is it? | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1390 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: N/A |
Abm, By making the valid point that men wield most of the world's power and influence does NOT negate the valid point that SOME women, for the sake of simply "having a man", will do almost anything irrational and irresponsible. Kola insists on raising a "new son". I insist on raising a "new daughter" --because if women understood the power and influence of their mind --and practiced self-control with their vaginas --and taught (by example) these principles to their daughters--we'd have a whole new world. | ||
| Abm "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Abm Post Number: 6185 Registered: 04-2004 Rating: N/A |
Moonsigns, Men and women come from the same source. We're just facets of the same family jewels. You best believe your evil man had some evil in his momma...somewhere. You wanna help purge the world of evil? You'll gonna have to START at your own FEMALE desires, hearts and wombs. | ||
| Moonsigns "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Moonsigns Post Number: 1394 Registered: 07-2004 Rating: N/A |
Abm, I agree. | ||
| Yvettep "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 1267 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: N/A |
help purge the world of evil The world will never be purged of evil. I cannot prove it, but I believe it to be a fact. Folks can try to balance it out with good, fight it, subdue it--But it ain't going nowhere, so long as there are humans on this earth. (That has been my moment of pessimism for the day. Now, back to work LOL) | ||
| Abm "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Abm Post Number: 6199 Registered: 04-2004 Rating: N/A |
Yvettep, Life's not a destination, babe. It's a journey... | ||
| Tonya "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Tonya Post Number: 395 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
Yvette, it will never go way because too much of it is wrapped up in the perception of good: Those who are truly evil, are trusted and revered as people that are good (so much so that many believe it themselves). On the flip side, those with the most virtues are made to be seen only for their vices. If we really wanted to rid the world of evil, we'd make it hard for people to profit from this perception. And it’s not like it's rocket science--no, it’s relatively easy to do. | ||
| Yvettep "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 1268 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: |
ABM, Tonya, I bow to you both. You have to excuse me. The last several days have been quite a struggle on the dissertation front. LOL | ||
| Yvettep "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Yvettep Post Number: 1269 Registered: 01-2005 Rating: N/A |
As long as y'all got me feeling all upbeat:  | ||
| Renata "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Renata Post Number: 1226 Registered: 08-2005 Rating: N/A |
Good/Evil. The Tao. |
